Dealing with difficulties of depression may decrease a cancer patient’s chance of eventual survival or hasten the progression of their physical disease, according to a recent study that will be published in the November 2009 edition of the publication Cancer.

There have previously been a number of studies conducted that showed that a patients overall mental health could impact their physical condition, but the authors of this study wanted to focus on a possible link between depression and cancer progression specifically.

To that end Jillian Satin, MA, of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada and colleagues set about trying to find study data that had been previously collected that could help them in their quest.

They eventually made use of data culled from twenty six previously conducted studies that encompassed data about 9417 cancer patients from all over the world and who had been diagnosed with several different types of the disease.

Satin and her colleagues were able to find a conclusive link between depression and increased risk of death from the disease. By combining the data from all the various studies they were able to conclude that in patients who displayed some mild depressive symptoms the increase in the death rate was about 25% while in those patients who had been clinically diagnosed with both minor and major depression the rate was even higher, a full 39 percent.

Even after other factors that may speed the progression of their cancer had been taken into account the risk factors for the depressed patients still remained. Although these initial results do seem to indicate that depression may shorten a patient’s lifespan the authors caution that a great deal more research needs to be conducted before that conclusion should be considered a fact rather than just a theory.

The authors note that the actual risk of cancer death being hastened by depression is still small so patients should not feel forced to maintain a unrealistically positive attitude while undergoing treatment for their disease, but they do state their belief that oncologists and other medical professionals treating cancer patients should remain vigilant to signs of depression in their patients and provide the appropriate treatment options if the condition is diagnosed.

As the studies focused on patients with a number of different cancers the researchers also suggest that studies need to be implemented to determine the effect of depression on various types of cancer individually.