BACKGROUND: Preoperative anxiety/depression can bring physical and mental harm to the patients with lung cancer. There is little study on whether hospital waiting time before surgery can increase the psychological burden of patients with lung cancer. The aim of this study was to investigate the preoperative anxiety and depression of patients with lung cancer in our hospital, and to analyze the related influencing factors. METHODS: A total of 135 lung cancer inpatients in the Department of Thoracic Surgery of Beijing Friendship Hospital were studied. Their general information and anxiety/depression were recorded by general questionnaire, Zung self-rating anxiety scale (SAS) and self-rating depression scale (SDS). RESULTS: The score of SAS was 36.25 (30.00, 42.50) on the day of admission, and 37.50 (31.25, 43.75) on one day before operation. The score of self-rating depression scale (SDS) was 46.25 (40.00, 52.50) on the day of admission, and 47.50 (41.25, 53.75) on one day before operation. Compared with the Chinese norm, there were 0 patient suffered from anxiety on the day of admission, and one day before operation. There were 2 patients suffered from mild anxiety; 6 patients suffered from mild depression on the day of admission, and this number went up to 8 on the day before operation. Single factor analysis showed that the hospital waiting time before surgery was positively correlated with preoperative anxiety and depression, and the results were statistically significant (P<0.05). The generalized linear model analysis showed that other factors such as knowledge, gender, age and marital status had no significant correlation with preoperative anxiety and depression. CONCLUSIONS The occurrence of preoperative anxiety in hospitalized patients with lung cancer is positively correlated to the hospital waiting time before surgery. The longer they stayed in the hospital before operation, the greater their risk of anxiety/depression. So medical staff should actively focus on the psychological condition of the patients with lung cancer, and it is strongly recommended that patients complete preoperative examination and preparation in the outpatient department, in order to reduce the waiting time before operation and reduced the risk of adverse psychological problems such as anxiety and depression.