Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Paging Dr. Gupta: Optimism, Cancer

Aired February 09, 2004 - 08:47   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Contrary to what you might think, a positive attitude does little to affect a cancer patient's outcome. In fact, it might have a negative impact.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us this morning from the CNN Center with details of a new cancer study.

Hey, Sanjay, good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

How much does being optimistic affect your outcome with regard to cancer survival? Well, conventional wisdom would say quite a bit. In fact, there were some studies in the late '80s and early '90s, sort of observational studies, that suggested having a good attitude, being optimistic, might improve your survival.

So, some researchers in Australia decided to put it to a test. They actually looked 179 patients with lung cancer, specifically, a very aggressive form of lung cancer; 171 of those patients died within five years -- again, a very aggressive form of cancer.

What they were really looking at, though, was how did attitude -- how did your ability to be optimistic affect your overall survival? Take a look at some of this, their conclusions with regard to this study. No evidence with their study that optimism was related to survival and lung cancer patients. That was one of the findings.

Also that encouraging patients to be positive may be an additional burden, in fact. That was the second conclusion of their study. Sort of an interesting study, Soledad. None of the researchers saying that it's necessarily -- they say hope for the best, prepare for the worst. But this was sort of an interesting study overall -- philosophy meets science -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Yes, but, I guess, that final phrase, "additional burdens," seems kind of strange to me, because I mean, I think it's fair -- I think you can understand that having a positive attitude won't necessarily save your life, but the idea that having a positive attitude might actually work against you seems really counterintuitive.

GUPTA: Yes, it does. And it seemed counterintuitive to us as well. We talked to a lot of researchers about this, and it's a fine line here -- a very fine line. A lot of oncologists will say a good attitude is important. But there might be a point where it gets to be too much.

Take a look at the way that they sort of broke this down. They broke down the study sort of into three parts. First of all, reminding people that optimism in and of itself is not a form of treatment. Therefore, you should not forgo treatments when you're optimistic.

Also, that patients may feel guilty if they think that they're not doing enough. For example, if a patient who has been diagnosed with cancer and suddenly has a downward course in terms of their overall progression, they may not feel that they're doing as well, and that subsequently they may deprive themselves of other things, other treatments, things like that.

If they're depriving themselves of useful treatment, that's where it can get to be a burden. You have this guilt factor. You have the fact that they may be depriving themselves. These are counterintuitive, as you say, Soledad, but it's a fine line doctors need to walk when encouraging patients to be optimistic with very aggressive cancers -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: So, is there no upside to having a good attitude then?

GUPTA: Well, I think that, you know, again, a lot of these observational studies suggested that your quality of life in your last few months -- or last few years of life may be better by having a good quality of life. As long as you keep the caveat that it should not be in lieu of treatment and that you should not feel guilty if your progression starts turning south, starts going the other way. If you can keep those two things in mind, then certainly your quality of life may be enhanced by having an optimistic outlook.

This is going to be a little bit of a controversial study, Soledad, because when you're talking about, again, the philosophy of optimism versus the science of chemotherapy you are walking a fine line there. But these are sort of what this study has found -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: And it's a strange study. All right, Sanjay, thanks a lot.

GUPTA: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.






Aired February 9, 2004 - 08:47   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
SOLEDAD O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Contrary to what you might think, a positive attitude does little to affect a cancer patient's outcome. In fact, it might have a negative impact.
Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us this morning from the CNN Center with details of a new cancer study.

Hey, Sanjay, good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Soledad.

How much does being optimistic affect your outcome with regard to cancer survival? Well, conventional wisdom would say quite a bit. In fact, there were some studies in the late '80s and early '90s, sort of observational studies, that suggested having a good attitude, being optimistic, might improve your survival.

So, some researchers in Australia decided to put it to a test. They actually looked 179 patients with lung cancer, specifically, a very aggressive form of lung cancer; 171 of those patients died within five years -- again, a very aggressive form of cancer.

What they were really looking at, though, was how did attitude -- how did your ability to be optimistic affect your overall survival? Take a look at some of this, their conclusions with regard to this study. No evidence with their study that optimism was related to survival and lung cancer patients. That was one of the findings.

Also that encouraging patients to be positive may be an additional burden, in fact. That was the second conclusion of their study. Sort of an interesting study, Soledad. None of the researchers saying that it's necessarily -- they say hope for the best, prepare for the worst. But this was sort of an interesting study overall -- philosophy meets science -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: Yes, but, I guess, that final phrase, "additional burdens," seems kind of strange to me, because I mean, I think it's fair -- I think you can understand that having a positive attitude won't necessarily save your life, but the idea that having a positive attitude might actually work against you seems really counterintuitive.

GUPTA: Yes, it does. And it seemed counterintuitive to us as well. We talked to a lot of researchers about this, and it's a fine line here -- a very fine line. A lot of oncologists will say a good attitude is important. But there might be a point where it gets to be too much.

Take a look at the way that they sort of broke this down. They broke down the study sort of into three parts. First of all, reminding people that optimism in and of itself is not a form of treatment. Therefore, you should not forgo treatments when you're optimistic.

Also, that patients may feel guilty if they think that they're not doing enough. For example, if a patient who has been diagnosed with cancer and suddenly has a downward course in terms of their overall progression, they may not feel that they're doing as well, and that subsequently they may deprive themselves of other things, other treatments, things like that.

If they're depriving themselves of useful treatment, that's where it can get to be a burden. You have this guilt factor. You have the fact that they may be depriving themselves. These are counterintuitive, as you say, Soledad, but it's a fine line doctors need to walk when encouraging patients to be optimistic with very aggressive cancers -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: So, is there no upside to having a good attitude then?

GUPTA: Well, I think that, you know, again, a lot of these observational studies suggested that your quality of life in your last few months -- or last few years of life may be better by having a good quality of life. As long as you keep the caveat that it should not be in lieu of treatment and that you should not feel guilty if your progression starts turning south, starts going the other way. If you can keep those two things in mind, then certainly your quality of life may be enhanced by having an optimistic outlook.

This is going to be a little bit of a controversial study, Soledad, because when you're talking about, again, the philosophy of optimism versus the science of chemotherapy you are walking a fine line there. But these are sort of what this study has found -- Soledad.

O'BRIEN: And it's a strange study. All right, Sanjay, thanks a lot.

GUPTA: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.