Recent research revealed that stress is deadly for melanoma patients as it can accelerate the growth rate of the disease. Eric V. Yang, a research scientist at the Institute for Ohio Behavioural Medicine Research (IBMR) and Ronald Glaser, director of IBMR and a professor of molecular virology, immunology and medical genetics studied the effect o stress on cancer cells.

Research team exposed samples of three melanoma cell lines to the compound norepinephrine, a naturally occurring catecholamine that functions as a stress hormone. Levels of norepinephrine in the bloodstream increase with the level of stress.

The study showed that there was a 2,000% increase in one protein, Interleukin-6, in the most aggressive and advanced form of the melanoma.

Eric Yang said: "What this tells us is that stress might have a worse effect on melanoma that is in a very aggressive or advanced stage, and that one marker for that might be increased levels of IL-6."