The relation of cancer-prone personality to exceptional recovery from cancer: a preliminary study.

An exceptional cancer-recovered group (n = 7) was compared with 2 other recovered groups: a non-exceptional cancer-recovered group (n = 27), and a non-exceptional heart disease (HD)-recovered group (n = 31). In support of the hypothesis that mitigation of a cancer-prone personality is associated with very unusual recoveries from cancer, the exceptional cancer group reported a greater prevalence of attributes of a cancer-prone personality before diagnosis and a greater decrease in these attributes from before diagnosis to after recovery than the other groups reported. Both cancer groups reported greater stress from life events within the 2-year period preceding diagnosis, particularly for loss (or threatened loss) of a close relationship, than the HD group reported. The high internal-consistency reliability of a Cancer-prone Personality Inventory (CPPI) and its discrimination of the 2 cancer groups from the HD group make it a promising measure of a cancer-prone personality.