Married cancer patients live longer than those are single, according to a new study by the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

If patients are diagnosed with cancer early while they're married, this new study said that they are less likely to die from the disease than the non-married ones, thus they'd live longer with just having a spouse than those who are single.

The researchers used a national database to survey nearly 735,000 patients diagnosed with one of 10 different types of cancer and found that those who were married were 20 percent less likely to die of their cancers compared to those who weren't married or at least live longer than those are single, according to the study published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology on Monday.

"The impact of marriage was profound on every cancer we studied," including lung, breast, colon, and prostate cancer, study leader Dr. Ayal Aizer, a radiation oncologist at Dana-Farber said in the journal. "It's a sign that marriage is providing crucial support for those diagnosed with cancer."

The study was based on cancer diagnoses made from 2004 through 2008 and stored in a National Cancer Institute database.

This study shows what love and support could possibly do for somebody going through something as tough as cancer.

"Marital status could be a proxy for social support, which previous research suggests could buffer the harmful effects of stress that are associated with life-threatening diseases," Kevin Stein, managing director of behavioral research at the American Cancer Society who was not involved with the study said.

Read the entire article below

https://jco.ascopubs.org/content/early/2013/09/18/JCO.2013.49.6489.abstract