Objectives: The aim of our study was to evaluate the expressed anxiety and depression of female cancer patients regarding the site of the cancer. We test the hypothesis that female patients with breast cancer have higher expressed depression and anxiety in comparison to other female cancer patients.
Methods: 202 consecutive female cancer patients who were treated at the out-patient department were clinically examined. The first group, which consisted of 149 female breast cancer patients, was compared with a group of 53 female patients with other cancers.
Results: More breast cancer patients suffered from clinically observed anxiety (85%) then patients with other cancers (73%) (p<0.05). The difference between patients with breast cancer (70%) and other patients (69%) was not observed for depression (p>0.05).
Conclusions: Despite many limitations in the study, this data indicates that female patients with different cancers may also express different levels of anxiety.