Kaiser Permanente scientists report in the current issue of Breast Cancer Research and Treatment that it is essential for a women with breast cancer to have quality relationships and a large social network.
The research showed women with larger social networks can improve their survival with breast cancer. The better personal relationships with spouse or partners, relatives and friends, religious or social ties are very likely to have a better survival among the women with breast cancer.
The study included more than 2,000 women who were early diagnosed with breast cancer, were also a part of LACE - Life After Cancer Epidemiology study. Two groups were made after each one of them provided their personal relationships.
First, socially isolated which were with fewer ties and moderately or socially integrated who were with many ties. It was found that women with small social network had a lower chance of survival than the ones with larger networks.
Candyce H. Kroenke, ScD, MPH, a research scientist with the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research and lead author of the study said "We found that women with small social networks had a significantly higher risk of mortality than those with large networks."
The study also found that socially isolated women had 34 percent higher chance of death caused by breast cancer or a different cause than the socially integrated women, according to a report published in Science Daily.
"We also found that when family relationships were less supportive, community and religious ties were critical to survival," Kroenke said. "This suggests that both the quality of relationships, rather than just the size of the network, matters to survival, and that community relationships matter when relationships with friends and family are less supportive."
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