SynthesisPsychosomatic medicine2021
Major Depression and Survival in People With Cancer.
Synthesis in Psychosomatic medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 64 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
64 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 97 citations in OpenAlex.
- Mind-Body Therapies for Depression and Anxiety Symptoms in People with Cancer: A Systematic Review with Network Meta-Analysis.Current oncology reports · 2026Pooled it
- Depression increases cancer mortality by 23-83%: a meta-analysis of 65 studies across five major cancer types.GeroScience · 2026Pooled it
- The effects of psilocybin on psychological distress in cancer patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC psychology · 2026Pooled it
- Exercise interventions for depressive symptoms in adults with lung and digestive cancer: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Prognostic value of depression and anxiety on colorectal cancer-related mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis based on univariate and multivariate data.International journal of colorectal disease · 2024Pooled it
- Guideline
- Article
- Feasibility and Acceptability of Virtual Dignity Therapy for Palliative Care Patients With Advanced Cancer.The American journal of hospice & palliative care · 2026Article
- Depression and increased cancer risk: a 10-year population-based cohort study.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2026Article
- Antidepressant adherence and breast cancer recurrence risk in women with major depressive disorder: a retrospective cohort.Journal of the National Cancer Institute · 2026Article
- Optimal mind-body exercise for quality of life, anxiety, and depression in cancer patients and survivors: A pairwise, network, and dose-response meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.Applied psychology. Health and well-being · 2026Article
- The global cancer mental health survey: insights from patient and provider experiences on psychosocial care access.EClinicalMedicine · 2026Article
- Disparities in outcomes and costs of gastrectomy for gastric cancer among patients with depression and anxiety.Surgical oncology insight · 2026Article
- Investigating Associations Between Psychological Distress and Changes in Peripheral Blood Monocytes in Patients With CLL/SLL Managed With Active Surveillance.Cancer medicine · 2026Article
- Long-term risk of depression in lung, colon, breast, and prostate cancer: a 25-year nationwide comparative study.BMC cancer · 2026Article
- Rethinking what counts as success in collaborative care.Palliative & supportive care · 2026Article
- Correlation of anxiety/depression status with stress-related markers and cancer-related fatigue in patients with colon cancer.World journal of psychiatry · 2026Article
- Impact of a collaborative care program on depression outcomes: A real-world retrospective analysis.Palliative & supportive care · 2026Article
- Chronic social defeat stress accelerates lung cancer progression and induces hippocampal metabolic dysregulation in a duration-optimized comorbid model.Metabolic brain disease · 2026Article
- Unraveling the role of IL-17 signaling pathway in breast cancer-related depression: insights from in vivo/in vitro models and transcriptomic analysis.Functional & integrative genomics · 2026Article
4 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveThe question of whether depression is associated with worse survival in people with cancer remains unanswered because of methodological criticism of the published research on the topic. We aimed to study the association in a large methodologically robust study.
methodsWe analyzed data on 20,582 patients with breast, colorectal, gynecological, lung, and prostate cancers who had attended cancer outpatient clinics in Scotland, United Kingdom. Patients had completed two-stage screening for major depression as part of their cancer care. These data on depression status were linked to demographic, cancer, and subsequent mortality data from national databases. We estimated the association of major depression with survival for each cancer using Cox regression. We adjusted for potential confounders and interactions between potentially time-varying confounders and the interval between cancer diagnosis and depression screening, and used multiple imputation for missing depression and confounder data. We pooled the cancer-specific results using fixed-effects meta-analysis.
resultsMajor depression was associated with worse survival for all cancers, with similar adjusted hazard ratios (HRs): breast cancer (HR = 1.42, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.15-1.75), colorectal cancer (HR = 1.47, 95% CI = 1.11-1.94), gynecological cancer (HR = 1.36, 95% CI = 1.08-1.71), lung cancer (HR = 1.39, 95% CI = 1.24-1.56), and prostate cancer (HR = 1.76, 95% CI = 1.08-2.85). The pooled HR was 1.41 (95% CI = 1.29-1.54, p < .001, I2 = 0%). These findings were not materially different when we only considered the deaths (90%) that were attributed to cancer.
conclusionsMajor depression is associated with worse survival in patients with common cancers. The mechanisms of this association and the clinical implications require further study.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.