[Personal reactions of men and women to oncologic disease].

The authors carried out clinical and psychological examinations of 50 men and 50 women suffering from malignant tumours of the lower extremities before and after the operation (amputation of the affected extremity). The patients remained under observation for a year and a half. In all the patients reactive states were diagnosed the clinical picture and the time course of which has substantial differences in the male and the female groups. In the men the violent onset of the reactive state gave place first to a relative compensation and then to a depressive-hypochondriacal development of the personality. In the women the reaction was noted 3 to 4 months after the operation, and later they developed psychopathy-like disturbances.