Abstract
Throughout the 1980s, the relationship between depression and cancer risk was explored by several investigators, with mixed results. Shekelle et al. ( 1 ) published the first major study of the decade, reporting a relationship between self-reported symptoms of depression and risk of cancer death over a 17-year follow-up period. A similar 20-year follow-up of the same Western Electric Company employee cohort again found a heightened risk of cancer mortality among study participants who reported depression at baseline ( 2 )