Using cross-sectional data collected from patients within 30 days of diagnosis with advanced cancer , this study used ROC analysis to determine the optimal-cutoff point of the distress thermometer ( DT ) for screening for depression as measured by the physician health questionnaire ( PHQ ) -9 ; inter-test reliability analysis to compare the DT with the PHQ-2 for screening in possible cases of depression , and multivariate analysis to examine associations among the DT emotional problem list ( EPL ) items with cases of depression .