The rate of depression among cancer patients may be lower than previously believed, says a new study. An international team of researchers analyzed 94 studies involving over 14,000 patients and found that about one sixth of cancer patients suffer from depression and about a third of a mood disorder more broadly defined.In the first five years after diagnosis, cancer patients had only modest rates of depression and anxiety, suggesting that depression is not inevitable in these patients, the researchers said. Depression was common only when combined with other mood disorders, and occurred in thirty percent of hospitalized cancer patients.
