Wellbeing in cancer patients can be considered a balance between two sets of factors: the stress and burden resulting from the cancer experience and the resources available for coping and mitigating stress and burden [10, 11]. Our study demonstrates that cancer patients in the UAE experience a wide range of unmet supportive needs, primarily related to psychological needs. Amongst the critical top 10 unmet needs of the patients surveyed, 50% were psychological in nature, with women expressing significantly higher psychological needs than men. This finding suggests that the improvement of mental health services for cancer patients is an urgent priority. Proactive encouragement and recruitment of female cancer patients into counselling services can help mitigate some of their needs.