Death Anxiety and Anxiety-Depression Symptoms in Lung Cancer Patients: A Cross-Sectional Study Conducted in Türkiye

Background: This study compared general and culturally sensitive death anxiety, anxiety, and depressive symptoms in patients with lung cancer and non-cancer clinical controls and examined clinical correlates within the lung cancer cohort.Methods: This analytical cross-sectional study included 43 patients with biopsy-confirmed lung cancer and 41 non-cancer internal medicine clinical controls (n = 84). Outcomes were assessed using the Abdel-Khalek Death Anxiety Scale (ASDA), Templer Death Anxiety Scale (DAS), and Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS). Treatment subgroup analyses and exploratory regression models were restricted to the 43 lung cancer cases.Results: Compared with controls, lung cancer patients had higher ASDA, DAS, and HADS-D scores (Holm-adjusted p < .001, p = .005, and p = .005, respectively), whereas HADS-A scores did not differ (adjusted p = .222). Within the lung cancer cohort, thoracic surgery was not associated with ASDA, DAS, HADS-A, or HADS-D in unadjusted analyses (all raw p ≥ .074). In the focused ASDA regression model, thoracic surgery was not an independent correlate (B = 6.27, 95% CI, -2.04 to 14.58; p = .135). Tumor stage and illness duration were not significantly associated with the psychometric outcomes.Conclusion: Lung cancer was associated with higher death anxiety and depressive symptom burden than non-cancer clinical illness. The available case-only analyses did not support thoracic surgery as an independent correlate of death anxiety. These cross-sectional findings require confirmation in larger longitudinal cohorts.