Cancer diagnosis doubles suicide rate in patients

http://www.newstarget.com/z020827.html

NewsTarget.com printable article
Originally published October 19 2006
Cancer diagnosis doubles suicide rate in patients
(NewsTarget) Cancer patients run at least double the risk of committing
suicide compared to the general population, according to a new study
published in the Annals of Oncology.
Dr. Wayne Kendal, a radiation oncologist at the Ottawa Hospital Regional
Cancer Center, conducted an analysis of 1.3 million cancer patients in the
United States, and found that 19 out of every 1,000 males diagnosed with
cancer committed suicide, while four out of every 1,000 female cancer
patients took their own lives.

While the general American population has a suicide rate of 10.6 suicides
out of every 100,000 per year, roughly 24 cancer patients out of every
100,000 commit suicide. Kendal found that gender, prognosis, type of cancer,
stage of the disease, ethnicity and family situation all contributed to
cancer patients' suicide risk.

"If we were to draw a composite picture of the patient most at risk, this
would be a widowed white male, with a new diagnosis of possibly head and
neck cancer or multiple myeloma, with widespread and perhaps high-grade
disease or maybe a history of other cancers," Kendal said.

"By contrast, a patient with decreased risk of suicide would be a woman of
African-American heritage, with perhaps colorectal or cervical cancer, and
living with her spouse."

According to Kendal's research, male cancer patients were nearly five times
more likely to commit suicide than female patients, which holds true for
suicide rates in the general population as well. Kendal also found that
cancers of the bladder, lungs, head, bronchus, neck and esophagus, and
myeloma all accounted for higher rates of suicide.

Though he was not clear on individual cancer patients' reasons for taking
their own lives, Kendal said it could be because of depression, fear of
pain, a desire not to be a burden to others or the desire to die with
dignity.

"What we as oncologists need to do, we need to realize that people need
support," Kendal said. "Oncology patients are not an island. We need to make
sure that everybody has support. It's not just treating diseases, it's
treating the person -- the holistic approach that I wanted to foster."

Natural health advocate Mike Adams said Kendal's study was important because
many cancer diagnoses are false positives.

"Breast cancer screening has recently been shown to be extremely dangerous,
harming 10 times as many women as it helps," Adams said. "And now this
suicide risk emerges as yet another danger to women who are falsely
diagnosed with breast cancer due to faulty screening procedures or the
wishful thinking of cancer centers looking for increased revenues."