Psychosocial Stress and Ovarian Cancer Risk: Metabolomics and Perceived Stress

Mouse models suggest that chronic stress promotes ovarian tumorigenesis, but the relationship between stress and ovarian cancer has never been evaluated in humans. Over the last year of the grant, we published an analysis demonstrating that exposure to chronic stress leads to tumors that express the beta-2 adrenergic receptor, the signaling pathway identified in mouse models. We have also made progress developing a metabolomic signature of post-traumatic stress disorder PTSD, a sentinel chronic stress condition. Overall, our continuing work on the role of stress in ovarian cancer development indicates that chronic stress may increase risk of developing ovarian cancer.