Can Stress Management Improve Vaccine Immune Response

描述（由申请人提供）：本申请的目的是区分自己作为一个独立的研究人员在癌症预防和控制。 我将通过优秀的多学科指导，有针对性的教育计划，并完成一个创新的研究项目来实现这一目标，该项目测试了一组心理干预对乳腺癌高风险女性的免疫功能和心理功能的影响。 慢性压力会损害免疫功能，包括对疫苗的免疫反应。 这对癌症控制和预防具有重要意义，因为肿瘤疫苗正在成为癌症治疗和预防的工具，而受益于疫苗的人群可能会受到压力。 乳腺癌风险升高的妇女经历了与免疫功能下降相关的显着程度的痛苦。 需要采取干预措施来治疗这些妇女中与痛苦相关的免疫力下降，因为这些妇女将成为乳腺癌疫苗的首批候选人。 从理论上讲，压力管理干预措施应该改善免疫功能和对疫苗的反应，但迄今为止的研究结果喜忧参半，部分原因是大多数干预研究都是针对天生具有免疫混乱的医学患者进行的。 因此，目前尚不清楚压力管理干预措施如何影响有压力但健康的人的免疫功能，例如乳腺癌风险升高的女性。 为了解决这一差距，拟议的研究将进行一项随机临床试验，以测试认知行为压力管理（CBSM）小组干预对乳腺癌风险升高的女性对疫苗和痛苦的免疫反应的有效性。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The goal of this application is to distinguish myself as an independent investigator in cancer prevention and control. I will accomplish this goal through excellent multidisciplinary mentorship, a targeted education plan, and the completion of an innovative research project testing the effects of a group psychological intervention on immune function and psychological function among women at elevated risk for breast cancer. Chronic stress can impair immune function, including immune response to vaccines. This has important implications for cancer control and prevention because tumor vaccines are emerging as tools for cancer treatment and prevention, and the cohort that would benefit from the vaccines is likely to be stressed. Women at elevated risk for breast cancer experience significant levels of distress that have been associated with immune function decrements. Interventions to treat distress-related immune decrements among these women are needed because these women will be among the first candidates for breast cancer vaccines. In theory, stress-management interventions should improve immune function and response to vaccines, but the findings to date are mixed, in part because most intervention studies have been done with medical patients who by nature have immune confounds. Thus, it is unknown how stress management interventions effect immune function in stressed but otherwise healthy people, such as women at elevated risk for breast cancer. To address this gap, the proposed investigation will conduct a randomized, clinical trial to test the efficacy of a cognitive behavioral stress management (CBSM) group intervention on immune response to vaccine and distress among women at elevated risk for breast cancer.