Suicide Risk and Its Correlates in Cancer Patients

Emotional distress naturally accompanies cancer diagnoses, but little is known about how cancer diagnoses are associated with suicide. To learn more, investigators cross-referenced data from a national U.K. cancer registry with death certificates in 4.7 million adults (age ≥60, 74%).

Over a mean follow-up of 4.7 years, a diagnosis of suicide was recorded on death certificates for 2492 cancer patients (0.08%), representing a 20% higher suicide risk than in the general population. The risk was highest with mesothelioma (4.5-fold higher) and cancers of the pancreas (3.9-fold), esophagus (2.7-fold), lung (2.6-fold), and stomach (2.2-fold). The risk was lower in patients with melanoma and prostate cancer than in the general population. Suicide wa…