(Hazard Ratio=1.87, p=0.039; Hazard Ratio=1.98, p=0.048, respectively), and in the Kaplan-Meier survival analysis with the log-rank test, the total BDI score predicted the BBD and BC groups combined (p=0.043; p=0.036, respectively Breast cancer (BC) is the most common cancer in females, with approximately 1.7 million new BC cases diagnosed globally per year. In addition, over a half million women die every year from BC. In Finland 5008 women were diagnosed with BC in 2014 and 5-year and 20-year survival was reported to be 90% and 62%, respectively (1, 2). Many patients with BC experience recurrence and therefore it is of great importance to indentify predictive factors to find the most effective treatment for each patient.The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) has become one of the most widely used psychometric methods detecting depression in normal populations and in different psychiatric patient cohorts (3). It has been translated into multiple languages including Arabian, Chinese, Japanese and Persian (4). Earlier, we assessed the psychometric tools BDI, Montgomery-Asberg depression rating scale and hopelessness/helplessness in healthy study subjects (HSS), benign breast disease (BBD) and BC groups and the results indicated a highly significant agreement between different psychometric inventories (5-9).Because BC is a hormonally responsive neoplasm with great psychological impact, it is the tumour type most extensively investigated for possible psychological variables associated with risk and survival (10). Hormonal factors, such as early age at menarche, later age at menopause, later age at first full-term pregnancy and hormone replacement therapy, are known to be the main risk factors for sporadic . In addition, life-style factors, such as obesity, smoking, alcohol consumption and lack of physical activity, appear to contribute to an increased risk for this malignancy, although the results concerning such factors are inconsistent (11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17).
