Retrospective cohort study of overall and cervical cancer survival of patients with or without mental disorder

Individuals with a mental disorder are less likely to participate in cervical screening an HPV vaccination. Additionally, this population may benefit less from tertiary cancer prevention. In a Swedish cohort study of 20,177 patients with cervical cancer diagnosed between 1978 and 2018, patients with a preexisting diagnosis of a mental health disorder had a 32% higher risk of death due to any cause and a 23% higher risk of death due to cervical cancer. After adjustments for cancer characteristics at diagnosis, risks remained elevated at 19% and 12%, respectively; however, the difference in risk of death due to cervical cancer was no longer statistically significant. The authors conclude that findings of this study suggest that patients with cervical cancer and a preexisting mental disorder had higher overall and cervical cancer-specific mortality, a difference that may be partly attributable to cancer and sociodemographic characteristics at diagnosis.