Biomedical Research

This paper was prompted by the necessity to investigate the relationship between psychiatric morbidity and survival of cancer patients. Eighty newly diagnosed treatment-naive patients with cancer were prospectively studied using self-administered questionnaires. Subsequent follow-ups were carried out at 0.5 year and between 1 to 2 years. The prediction of survival time was determined using Cox model. Depression (p = 0.001), stage 4 cancer disease (p = 0.016), neurological (p = 0.032), gastrointestinal tract (p = 0.04), head & neck (p = 0.011), gynecological (p = 0.005) and bone & soft tissue (p = 0.030) malignancies were independent and statistically significant prognostic factor of survival. Depressed patients have almost four fold greater risk of dying than non-depressed patients. Patients with stage 4 cancer illness have five fold greater risk of dying than patients with stage 1 disease. Patients with neurological, gynecological, head and neck, bone & soft tissue and gastro intestinal tract malignancies were found to have approximately thirty-six, twenty-five, twenty-two, sixteen and seven fold greater risk of dy-ing, respectively when compared to subjects with genitourinary cancers. Depression has significant impact on survival of patients with cancer.

Author(s): Suthahar Ariaratnam, Ambigga Devi, Gurpreet Kaur, Dhachayani Sinniah, Adlina Suleiman, Maniam Thambu, Fuad Ismail
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