Interestingly, sexuality scored low as an unmet need for cancer patients in our study, although men expressed higher unmet need for sexuality as compared to women (r =0.901, p < 0.001). This is consistent with previous studies demonstrating that patterns of unmet supportive care needs differ across cultures and health care services among Caucasians, Japanese and Chinese [24, 25, 26]. Previous studies, based on Hong Kong Chinese women with breast cancer, also showed similar low unmet needs related to sexuality [12, 13, 18, 21, 26]. In the UAE, it is not standard practice to routinely assess sexual wellbeing in cancer and palliative care patients, as it is often not a presenting symptom. Also, it is possible that the reported low sexual needs were due to an unwillingness of the patient to discuss sexual concerns. Routinely addressing sexual issues as part of cancer treatment may overcome some of these cultural barriers and ensure that this aspect of patient care needs is met.