Child maltreatment may hurt immunity later

• Tweet

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Aug. 2 (UPI) -- U.S. researchers say abused and neglected children could be at greater risk of skin cancer as adults because childhood stress may permanently weaken immunity.

Chris Fagundes of Ohio State University in Columbus and colleagues looked at data on past-year life stresses and childhood relations with parents among 91 people who had basal cell skin cancer.

"If they have these recent life stressors in the past year, and if they were maltreated as a child, this combination had a particularly detrimental effect," Fagundes said in a statement.

The researchers suspect childhood stresses weakened the immune systems for life, making them less able to fight off these kinds of cancers, Fagundes said.

The study was published in the Archives of General Psychiatry.