Two-scale assessment of anxiety and depression in postoperative non-small cell lung cancer patients: their prevalence, risk factors, and prognostic potency

Objective: Anxiety and depression commonly occur and correlate with poor prognosis in patients with cancer. The study aimed to assess the anxiety and depression in patients with postsurgical non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) using both Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and Self-Rating Anxiety/Depression Scale (SAS/SDS) and to investigate their risk factors and linkage with prognosis.

Methods: HADS and SAS/SDS were assessed in 350 patients with NSCLC at 3 months after surgical resection and 100 healthy controls (HCs). Patients with NSCLC were followed up for a median period of 27.0 (range: 6.0-52.0) months for prognostic evaluation.

Results: HADS-identified anxiety rate (39.7% vs. 10.0%, P < 0.001), SAS-identified anxiety rate (34.9% vs. 9.0%, P < 0.001), HADS-identified depression rate (29.7% vs. 5.0%, P < 0.001), and SDS-identified depression rate (27.1% vs. 6.0%, P < 0.001) were all elevated in patients with NSCLC vs. HCs. Multivariate logistic regression analysis uncovered that diabetes, adjuvant therapy, postoperative complications, and poor differentiation were independently linked with increased HADS- or SAS-identified anxiety risk (all P < 0.05); meanwhile, female gender, hypertension, diabetes, poor differentiation, adjuvant therapy, postoperative complications, and TNM stage were independently linked with increased HADS- or SDS-identified depression risk (all P < 0.05). Furthermore, HADS-identified anxiety, SAS-identified anxiety, HADS-identified depression, and SDS-identified depression independently predicted shorter disease-free survival and overall survival (all P < 0.05).

Conclusion: Anxiety and depression are prevalent and linked with poor survival in patients with postsurgical NSCLC. Meanwhile, gender, comorbidities, advanced tumor features, adjuvant therapy, and postoperative complications relate to the prevalence of anxiety and depression.