[Cancer and unemployment].

The lack of work is a increasingly dramatic situation in the times we are living. Daily experience of clinicians provides us with important clues that remind us of the existence of a direct relationship between prolonged unemployment and predisposition to serious health problems, in particular to suffering certain types of cancer. This paper aims to review the major epidemiological studies that have dealt the relationship between cancer and unemployment. Several hypotheses may be formulated with the results of this review arising from the possible etiological relationship between unemployment and development (or poor prognosis) of neoplastic processes.
(Copyright © 2014 Sociedad Española de Médicos de Atención Primaria (SEMERGEN). Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)