Dec 8, 2009
In Cancer-Ridden Rats, Loneliness Can Kill
Socially isolated female rats develop more tumors – and tumors of a more deadly type – than rats living in a social group, according to researchers at Yale University and the University of Chicago. The dramatic increase in mammary tumors among isolated Norway rats – which, like humans, are a highly social species – illustrates how loneliness can be deadly, the authors report in findings to be published the week of December 6 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.