Previous research shows the benefits of psychological intervention programs for breast cancer patients, but now, a new study reveals this type of intervention can reduce the risk of death in breast cancer survivors even if the cancer comes back.

In an earlier study, completed by Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, researchers found that women who participated in an intervention program were 56-percent less likely to die from breast cancer and were 45-percent less likely to have the cancer recur.

This new study demonstrated how the intervention program’s benefits continued even after recurrence and showed a 59-percent lower risk of dying from the cancer.

“Women who took part in the intervention program do better across the board than do others, even if they have a recurrence,” Barbara Andersen, lead author of the study, and a member of Ohio State’s Comprehensive Cancer Center and professor of psychology, was quoted as saying.

Researchers say the program helped patients reduce stress, learn how to cope with a cancer diagnosis, use problem solving strategies, learn how to implement a healthy exercise and diet routine and learn how to deal with treatment side effects.

The intervention group met weekly for four months in groups of eight to 12 along with a psychologist. They continued the program for eight months, meeting monthly.

Researchers say this intervention is longer and more intense than most and that the women who participated learned tangible ways to deal with their cancer, even long after the programs completion.

SOURCE: Clinical Cancer Research, June 2010