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Patients with cancer experience a host of behavioral alterations that include depression, fatigue, sleep disturbances and cognitive dysfunction. These behavioral co-morbidities are apparent throughout the process of diagnosis and treatment for cancer and can persist well into the survivorship period. There is a rich literature describing potential consequences of behavioral co-morbidities in patients with cancer including impaired quality of life, reduced treatment adherence and increased disease-related morbidity and mortality. Medical complications of cancer and its treatment such as anemia, thyroid dysfunction, and the neurotoxicity of cancer chemotherapeutic agents account in part for these behavioral changes. Nevertheless, recent advances in the neurosciences and immunology/oncology have revealed novel insights into additional pathophysiologic mechanisms that may significantly contribute to the …