Abstract: The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of psychological intervention and the factors influencing it in a sample of cancer patients. 289 cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy or radiotherapy were randomly assigned to one of the two groups: intervention group or control group. The data was analyzed by using regression statistic method. It was found that patients who received intervention reported significantly higher quality of life and performance status than did the control group. The main two factors impairing psychological intervention were the distant metastases and the ways of telling the diagnosis. Some factors influencing psychological intervention such as the other symptoms and its effect, psychological preparation before medical treatment, life events were notable in the chemotherapy group; others like medical fee, levels of education and the experience of treatment were marked in the radiotherapy group. These data clearly suggested that the use of psychological intervention was needed in the clinical oncology, and the influential way of factors was synthetic.

Key words: psychological intervention, influential factors, cancer patients, quality of life