Armer JS, et al. - Researchers explored risk factors for persistent anxiety and its physiologic sequelae in ovarian cancer by assessing the links between prior life events, anxiety, inflammation (plasma levels of interleukin-6), and diurnal cortisol profiles in these patients during the first year postdiagnosis. They found that decreased anxiety was related to a more normalized cortisol slope over time. Flatter cortisol slopes over time related to early life adversity were also seen; anxiety trajectory partially mediated this link. They found no association between either anxiety or prior stress exposure and levels of interleukin-6. Overall, prior life events and chronic anxiety during the first year postdiagnosis in patients with ovarian cancer may put them at risk of more negative outcomes, since dysregulated cortisol has been associated with fatigue, poorer quality of life, and shorter survival in these subjects.