Neoplasm and traumatic events in childhood
K. R. Duszynski, J. W. Shaffer and C. B. Thomas
Previous research has suggested that certain objectively defined traumatic
events occurring in childhood and/or adolescence may be linked to the
appearance of neoplasm later in life. The present report examines four such
events-parental death, parental divorce, sibling death, and having been the
youngest child for less than two years-for their frequency of occurrence
within four groups of physician subjects classified according to current
health status as follows: major cancer, skin cancer, benign tumor, and
healthy controls. All data had been collected while the subjects were in
medical school within the context of a long-term, prospectively oriented
study. Major cancer subjects were also compared with their cancer-free
siblings with respect to length of time spent as youngest child. Although
there was a slight tendency for the trend of the findings to be in accord
with the hypotheses tested, no statistically significant differences among
groups could be demonstrated.
