Having friends could save your life.

A new study suggests there may be a link between cancer patients who have strong support groups and higher survival rates.

Jingxuan Zhao, the study’s author and senior associate scientist at the American Cancer Society, said “loneliness may be linked to worse survival after a cancer diagnosis.”

This may be due to the “increased risk of experiencing negative emotions such as hostility, stress and anxiety, increased unhealthy behaviors including smoking, alcohol abuse and less physical activity, or through physiological pathways such as immune system disorders,” she told U.S. News & World Report.

“It is also possible that cancer survivors who feel lonelier might not receive the practical and emotional support they need for their symptoms,” she added.

Researchers looked at data from the 2008-2018 Health and Retirement Study, examining nearly 3,450 cancer survivors aged 50 and older. They kept track of participants through 2020.

Every four years, researchers assessed how lonely the participants were and then separated them into four categories: low/no loneliness, mild loneliness, moderate loneliness and high loneliness.

The study found cancer survivors that reported feeling more lonely had “higher hazard ratios” — which indicated higher mortality risks — when compared to the low/no loneliness group.

The study’s findings from were presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology on Saturday.

The American Cancer Society stressed in a press release the importance of cancer patients having a support group to reply on, and suggested implementing programs to screen those for loneliness in order to provide social support.

“One approach to reduce their loneliness is to connect with other people who also have had cancer or to join a support group and share their experience,” Zhao said. “Cancer survivors can also reach out to social workers, therapists or other health professionals to express their concerns and seek help.”

The authors noted that findings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.