Depression Could be the Key to Lower Survival Rates in Lung Cancer Patients
Research has shown that people with lung cancer who also suffer from depression have a greater chance of having inflammation levels linked to lower survival rates. This could mean that many people with lung cancer don’t benefit from medicines specifically created to help them get better, even though these same treatments might help others.
Barbara Andersen, a professor at The Ohio State University and one of the authors of the study that was recently published in the journal PLOS ONE, said that people with depression have much higher risks for bad outcomes than people without depression. She said these depression levels are even more important than other risk factors associated with lung cancer.
A group of researchers from Ohio State’s College of Medicine and The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center – Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute were examining 186 people who had just been diagnosed with advanced lung cancer (Stage IV). They wanted to find out how different levels of depression can affect a person’s marker for systemic inflammation ratio (SIR).
Scientists have studied three biomarkers that show how high inflammation is in our body, which can be dangerous and can lead to decreased survival rates.
The study also included checking for depression levels, and it showed that a large number of patients – 35% – had depressive symptoms from moderate to severe.
It was especially worrying because among all types of cancer patients, those with lung cancer were the ones who were the most depressed.
The results showed that people with more depression also had higher levels of inflammation, but the important thing was that people with the highest depression scores were the ones causing this relationship.
For example, when looking at one of the biomarkers from the study (called platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio), 56% of the people with no or mild symptoms of depression had dangerous levels of inflammation, while only 42% of those below did.
Out of the people who had high levels of depression, 77% also had higher than normal amounts of inflammation. Only 23% showed lower levels.
The relationship between depression and inflammation was mainly noticed in those with a severe level of depression since their inflammation levels were significantly higher.
People with depression were more likely to have increased inflammation in their body than other people, even when taking into account other things that can impact inflammation levels such as age and smoking status.
The analysis showed that three special biomarkers predict our chances of survival. Those with higher levels of an inflammatory substance called neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio were twice as likely to die within two years, compared to those with lower levels. This study measured how depression and inflammation were related at the start of a patient’s diagnosis before they had gotten treatment for it.
In a past study, researchers found that how you felt after being diagnosed with lung cancer had an effect on your chances of survival. This was the first time anyone looked into the risk of living if your depression symptoms continued through treatment and afterwards.
These results show us how important it is to pay attention to how we feel and to get help if we need it after lung cancer diagnosis.
In this study, there were more cancer patients with depression and inflammation than those who had other factors related to not surviving cancer, like having lower education level, being overweight, or getting a bad score on tests that measure their ability to do everyday tasks.
Doctors might think it’s normal for people with cancer to feel down but that’s not true.
It’s okay if you get upset, sad and worried when you find out you have cancer, but it’s not okay if you experience major depression. This study found that there is a connection between depression and inflammation that can lead to not so good results.
This article by Barbara L. Andersen et al tells about a study that shows depression might be linked to markers for lung cancer survival. The study also looked at connection between neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio and advanced lung cancer inflammation (ALI) assessing a person’s chances of surviving from this disease in the end. This was published on PLOS ONE journal with the DOI of 10.1371/journal.pone.0282206 on the 24th of February, 2023.
