Revealing a diagnosis of cancer generates various psychological responses such as anxiety and depression which deteriorate the quality of life (QOL) of this patient.

Assess the level of both anxiety and depression in patients with cancer; assess the impact of their disease on their physical and mental QOL.

Deduct the risk factors of anxiety, depression and bad QOL.

Our study is transversal. It is conducted on patients hospitalized in the department of Carcinology CHU Habib Bourguiba in Sfax (Tunisia). The screening tool for anxiety and depression was HADS scale and the assessment of QOL was performed using the SF-36

We identified 50 patients. Concerning their psychological state, the one-quarter (23.9%) had a doubtful anxious state and the one-third (32.6%) had a certain anxious state. The depression was doubtful in 13% of cases and certain in 39.1%. The deterioration of QOL was significant (84.8%). The averages of both the physical score (PCS) and the mental score (MCS) was respectively 41.61% and 33.67%.

A bad QOL was correlated with locally-advanced to metastatic stage of cancer (p = 0.043), the time progression of the disease (>6months) (p?? = 0.01), moderate to severe pain (p ??= 0.028), radiotherapy treatment (p = 0.029) and the depression state (p = 0.023).

Our study underlines the necessity of screening both depression and anxiety in patients with cancer, in order to improve their QOL.