Background: Defense mechanisms defined as unconscious process, cognitive operations alter by developmental periods for protective function, and that can be assessment of personality and experimental schedules. Defense Style Questionnaire (DSQ-60) is a self-report instrument designed to measuredefensive functioning and coping styles. The aim of this study was to adaptive theDSQ-60 in a sample of cancer patients in Iran using exploratory and confirmatory factor analytic procedures. Method:The DSQ-60 was used to measure the conscious derivatives of three factors defense styles includeimage.distorting, affect.regulating and adaptive in a sample of 200 cancer patients. Result: Cronbach's coefficient alpha for image.distorting (ex = 0.54),affect.regulating (ex = 0.53) and adaptive (ex = 0.5) were found to be poor in terms of potential clinical significance,internal consistency for all components was acceptable (.68). Conclusion:Our results were consistent with the previous research on the DSQ-60 indicating that the psychometric features need to be improved before the wider use of the scale. Further, DSQ-60 is a suitable tool to assess cancer patients psychological defense styles and that may be used for psychological interventions to improve the care of these patients.

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N owadays, cancer has attracted worldwide attention. Cancer is spread of abnormal cells, either primary or the next serious effect, i.e., metastatic spread of malignant cells [1]. The burden of cancer in the United States shows estimated 1,685,210 new cases of cancer are diagnosed in the United States per year and it is predicted that 595,690 people will die from the disease in 2016 [2]. Cancer is the third most common cause of death, next to accidents and heart diseases in Iran [3]. There are differences between both genders, age groups and kinds of cancer. The gender difference in susceptibility can give important information for the etiology of cancers and should be examined in all genetic and nongenetic association studies [4]. Whereas National Cancer Registry found that "the median age of cancer patients at diagnosis will increase for all invasive cancers combined; the percentage of patients aged over 70 is expected to increase, for females, from 31% in 2015 to 44% in 2025, and for males, from 40% to 51%" [5]. Liver cancer data indicates that "there will not only be more cancer patients, but they will be older on average; in people living in less developed countries in Asia and Africa the disease can develop at a younger age (typically around the age of 40), compared with those in more developed countries worldwide" [6]. Although about kinds of cancer according to world health ranking, it was investigated that leukemia death was 18 th cause of death in Iran, which reflects slightly better condition in this country in this regard [7]. Statistics by country extrapolated found that leukemia incidence was 7,643 from 67,503,2052 in Iranian population [8]. Projected numbers of incident cases of leukemia, however, from 2015 to 2040, in females is 12% 2015 to 88% in 2040, and in males, 22% in 2015 to 117% in 2040 [5]. In this study, we aim to look into the cancer cases by gender, age groups, and kinds of cancer in cancer patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS This investigation was conducted in 200 patients that were admitted into hospital in oncology wards of hospital after diagnosis with cancer in Zahedan city region, Iran. Cases of cancer getting various treatments such as surgery with removal of the tumor and surrounding tissue during an operation, chemotherapy or use of drugs to destroy cancer cells, which works by keeping the cancer cells from growing and dividing to make more cells, and radiotherapy by high-energy X-rays to destroy cancer cells and slow tumor growth, without harming

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