Tokyo: Cancer patients face a risk approximately 1.8 times higher of taking their own lives within two years of diagnosis compared to the general population, a survey by a research team with the Japanese health ministry has found.
The team emphasized the importance of early intervention for suicide prevention in cancer patients, according to the report released by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, which highlighted that the shorter the time elapsed since diagnosis, the higher the suicide risks.
The study analysed data from about 1.07 million individuals diagnosed with cancer in 2016. Over a span of two years, the research team tracked the number and timing of suicides among these patients, comparing the results to suicide rates in the general population.
