Women who are taught skills to manage stress after being diagnosed with breast cancer may experience improved moods and a better quality of life for many years to come, a new study suggests.

US researchers followed the progress of 240 women who had recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. They were randomly selected to a attend a one-day seminar of education about the disease, or to attend a 10-week support group during which they learned coping skills and relaxation techniques.

Perhaps not surprisingly, those who attended the 10-week course had a better quality of life and displayed fewer symptoms of depression during their first year of treatment.

However, the researchers followed up the participants 15 years later and found that those who attended the 10-week course still had a better quality of life and fewer symptoms of depression.

"Women with breast cancer who participated in the study initially used stress management techniques to cope with the challenges of treatment to lower distress.

"Because these stress management techniques also give women tools to cope with fears of recurrence and disease progression, the present results indicate that these skills can be used to reduce distress and depressed mood and optimise quality of life across the survivorship period as women get on with their lives," said the study's lead author, Jamie Stagl, of Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

She noted that the levels of depression and quality of life reported by the women who underwent the 10-week course were similar 15 years later to the levels found in women who have never been diagnosed with breast cancer.

Ms Stagl added that as breast cancer survival rates are increasing, methods to improve psychological health are becoming more important. These findings suggest that providing women with stress management skills early on in their diagnosis could help to maintain their psychological health in the long term.

Details of these findings are published in the journal, CANCER.