Suicide risk and mortality among patients with cancer

Despite substantial progress in cancer therapy in recent decades patients with cancer remain at high suicide risk. A meta-analysis of 28 studies involving more than 22 million cancer patients found that these patients have a risk of dying by suicide nearly 2-fold greater than that of the general population (SMR 1.85; 95% CI 1.55-2.20), with a 3.5-fold greater suicide mortality seen in patients with cancers known to have a poor prognosis, including cancers of the liver, stomach, and head.