[Depression and advanced cancer: agreement between different screening strategies]

Depression is a frequent problem in advanced cancer patients. However, there is no systematic screening for depression in the majority of cancer center resulting in underdiagnosed depression among cancer patients. The main objective of this study was to assess the level of agreement between self-reported depression by the patient and the physician and nurse assessment using the same tools. One of the secondary objectives was to estimate the possibility of a systematic and repeated (at one month) assessment. We used two scales for depression screening: the Brief Edinburg Depression Scale (BEDS) and the depression item of the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS). Twenty-nine patients were included and eight of them (28%) had a BEDS score >6 and benefited from the initiation or modification of their antidepressant treatment. At visit 2, 15 patients were seen again and BEDS score was found ≤6 for all of them. A moderate concordance was found between assessment using the BEDS by patient and physician's (κ=0.519) and low agreement was found between physician and nurse regardless of the tool used (κ from 0.071 to 0.313). Researches with larger cohorts are now needed to confirm the benefits of depression's screening in this frail population and also to assess available strategies.