THE EFFECT OF EMOTIONAL QUALITY MANAGEMENT ON CORTISOL, TNF-, AND IL-2 IN WOMEN WITH BREAST CANCER

Women with breast cancer are often diagnosed of having emotional and psychosocial problems. This distress can influence immune system, and may be decreasing individual’s ability to fight the disease and metastasis. Emotional Quality Management (EQM) model is strategy with a focus to increase emotional maturity. Emotional maturity will lead to positive perception of women with breast cancer. The objective of this study was to find the effect of EQM training on immunity responses that were measured with cortisol, tumor necrosing factor alpha (TNF-a), interleukin-2 (IL-2) and interferon gamma in women with breast cancers. Twenty-eight women with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy in Dr Soetomo hospital outpatient clinic were selected and divided into two groups. First group was given with EQM training four times and the second group served as control. Peripheral blood sample was used to measure immune responses cortisol, TNF-a and IL-2. Results obtained from each group were analyzed using analysis of variance with T test. This study demonstrated that EQM training for women with breast cancer had significantly lowered cortisol level. No differences between the groups were seen for TNF-a and IL-2 levels. In conclusion, Emotional Quality Management improved perception of stress modulate the activity of the HPA axis, resulting in decreased cortisol levels, followed by a trend of increased TNF-a, and IL-2. These cytokines are indicators of improved cellular immunity that is necessary for the patient’s body resistance against breast cancer cells. (FMI 2013;49 1-7)