To evaluate the relationship between depression level, anxiety level and positioning error in cancer patients during radiotherapy. 40 cancer patients (6 cases of nasopharyngeal carcinoma, 14 cases of breast cancer, 2 cases of liver cancer, 10 cases of lung cancer and 8 cases of esophageal cancer) were selected for the first radiotherapy.Self rating Anxiety Scale (SAS) was used to measure anxiety level, self rating Depression Scale (SDS) was used to measure depression level, and Yida XVI software was used to measure linear positioning error (mm) and rotational positioning error (°). Anxiety and depression were assessed three times and positioning error was measured six times before radiotherapy in the early stage (T1), middle stage (T2) and late stage (T3). the scores of SDS and SAS in the early stage were higher than those in the middle and late stage (P < 0.05). During T1 and T2, the placement error of patients with moderate and high depression  was greater than the average value of placement error of patients with non depression , and the placement error of patients with moderate and high anxiety was greater than that of patients with non anxiety (P < 0.05). There was no significant difference dbetween K1 and K2 and between B1 and B2 in T3 (P > 0.05). The level of depression and anxiety is the highest in tumor patients before the first radiotherapy. High level of depression and anxiety may be related to positioning error.

Juan Deng. Effects of Anxiety and Depression on Positioning Error of Radiotherapy. International Journal of Frontiers in Medicine (2024), Vol. 6, Issue 3: 56-61. https://doi.org/10.25236/IJFM.2024.060309.

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