National Resource Center for Late Effects, Department of Oncology, Oslo University Hospital, Rikshospitalet, University of Oslo - The Norwegian Radium Hospital, Oslo, Norway.
Future Oncol. 2010 May;6(5):691-707. doi: 10.2217/fon.10.31.
Personality refers to an individual's enduring and pervasive personal motivation, emotion, interpersonal style, attitudes and behavior that are stable over a long time after young adulthood. In relation to the cancer trajectory, three basic and one other personality traits have been studied with some frequency, namely neuroticism, extraversion, conscientiousness and optimism. The considerable stability of personality over time makes it a potential long-acting etiological factor for the development of cancer. However, the studies performed so far do not give much support to personality as a causative factor for cancer. Some studies of cancer survival have found significant associations between lower optimism and higher neuroticism with shorter survival. More mental distress and fatigue and poorer quality of life is significantly associated with higher neuroticism and lower optimism at cancer screening, diagnosis and primary treatment, short- and long-term follow-up and towards the end of life. Neuroticism is a strong predictor of post-traumatic stress disorder triggered by cancer as a life-threatening experience eventually leading to negative personality changes. To what extent cancer leads to positive personality changes (post-traumatic growth) is currently unsettled. Basic personality traits are strongly associated with lifestyle, which is considered an important etiological factor for the development of cancer. The methodological problems in the study of personality and cancer are considerable, and many research designs used so far may have been too simplistic. Studies of potential biomarkers for personality traits combined with inflammation markers of cellular carcinogenesis in longitudinal designs could be promising for the future. High neuroticism is important for the clinical management of cancer patients and should gain more attention from oncologists in the future.
人格是指个体在成年后长期保持的持久而普遍的个人动机、情感、人际风格、态度和行为。在癌症发生发展过程中，有三种基本人格特质和一种其他特质被研究得比较多，分别是神经质、外向性、尽责性和乐观性。人格在时间上具有相当的稳定性，这使得它成为癌症发生的潜在长期病因因素。然而，到目前为止，所进行的研究并没有为人格作为癌症的致病因素提供太多支持。一些癌症生存研究发现，较低的乐观性和较高的神经质与较短的生存期之间存在显著关联。在癌症筛查、诊断和初始治疗、短期和长期随访以及生命末期，更多的心理困扰、疲劳和较差的生活质量与较高的神经质和较低的乐观性显著相关。神经质是癌症这一危及生命的经历引发创伤后应激障碍的一个强有力的预测因素，最终导致人格的负面变化。癌症在多大程度上导致积极的人格变化（创伤后成长）目前尚无定论。基本人格特质与生活方式密切相关，生活方式被认为是癌症发生的一个重要病因因素。人格与癌症研究中的方法学问题相当大，到目前为止使用的许多研究设计可能过于简单化。在纵向设计中，结合细胞癌变的炎症标志物研究人格特质的潜在生物标志物可能具有广阔的前景。高神经质对癌症患者的临床管理很重要，在未来应该引起肿瘤学家更多的关注。
