A Prospective Survey Of Depressive Disorder Among Patients With Advanced Lung Cancer In South China.

216 Background: Depression frequently compromises quality of life and prognosis for patients with cancer. However, this psychiatric disorder is often overlooked. This ongoing multi-center investigation was designed to prospectively evaluate the prevalence of depressive disorder in patients with advanced lung cancer in South China.Patients diagnosed with advanced lung cancer will be screened by two items from the nine-item Personal Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). For individuals who endorse either item (or both) as occurring for more than half of the time or nearly every day within the last 2 weeks (ie, score of ≥ 2), the remaining 7 items are suggested to be completed. Patients will receice standard palliative chemotherapy according to the preference of oncologists. Demographic variables and clinical information were statistically analyzed.By now, this study have enrolled 97 patients for initial screen, 58 (59.8%) were chemotharapy-naïve. Based on the PHQ-9 questionnaire, the percent of patient suffered from various degree depressive symptomes was 76.3% (74 patients). 51.5% patients (50 cases) were proved with mild depressive symptomes but not met the criteria for depression. Meanwhile, the incidence of moderate or severe depression were separately 17.5% and 7.3%. There were few consistent correlates of depression. Hitherto, 49 patients completed the second investigation after 1or 2 cycles of palliative chemotherapy. In terms of the PHQ-9 score, no statistically significant difference was detected around cytotoxic treatment (mean value: 6.67 and 6.43, p = 0.65). Although the mild depressive symptomes were decreased from 53.1% to 42.9% after palliative chemotherapy, the percent of moderate or severe depression remained the same (17/49, 34.7%).The preliminary result showed that the incidence of depressive disorder among patients with advanced lung cancer may be underestimated. No evidence was found yet to demonstrate the impact of demographic variables on depression. There is unmet need for psychological intervention for advanced lung cancer patients with depressive disorder, especially for those with moderate or severe degree at diagnosis.