Stress and leucocyte subpopulations in women with past breast cancer diagnosis

Within the field of psychoneuroimmunology, the present work compares the differential white blood cell count between a group of 73 women with past breast cancer diagnosis undergoing an concological examination (situation that usually implies psychological stress), and a second group of 85 healthy women who are voluntary blood donnors. Student- Fisher t-tests show that, although the observed mean values in both group are within the normality intervals of general population, there are statistically significant (p=0.000) increases of mean numbers of neutrophils and monocytes in women submited to oncological examination.