One in two cancer patients is significantly distressed: Prevalence and indicators of distress

Psychological distress is common in cancer patients, and awareness of its indicators is essential. We aimed to assess the prevalence of psychological distress and to identify problems indicative of high distress.

We used the distress thermometer (DT) and its 34-item problem list to measure psychological distress in 3724 cancer patients (mean age 58 years; 57% women) across major tumor entities, enrolled in an epidemiological multicenter study. To identify distress-related problems, we conducted monothetic analyses.