OBJECTIVES: Similar challenges are encountered in management of depression among individuals with cancer and cardio-metabolic conditions; with presence of high prevalence of diagnosed depression, negative impact of depression on health outcomes, and competing demands in clinical care encounters, in both the conditions. Additionally, there has been a lack of robust evidence from clinical trials on the effectiveness of depression treatment on physical illness outcomes in both cancer and cardio-metabolic conditions. Thus the objectives of this study were to compare depression treatment rates among individuals with self-reported depression and cancer or cardio-metabolic conditions, and to examine the association between depression treatment and presence of cancer diagnosis after controlling for demographic, socio-economic, access to care, health status, and lifestyle characteristics. METHODS: The study used a retrospective cross-sectional design. Data from multiple years of the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS), a nationally representative household survey on healthcare utilization and expenditures was used. Study sample consisted of adults aged 21 or older with self-reported depression and cancer (N = 528), or self-reported depression and diabetes, heart disease or hypertension (N = 1643). Depression treatment comprised of any use of antidepressants and/or any use of mental health counseling services. RESULTS: Treatment rates for depression were 78.0 % and 81.7% among individuals with cancer and cardio-metabolic conditions, respectively.  After controlling for demographic- and socio-economic characteristics, access to care, health status, lifestyle risk factors, and number of physician visits; individuals with cancer were less likely to report treatment for depression (AOR = 0.67; 95% Confidence Interval ((0.49, 0.92), p <0.01) compared to individuals with cardio-metabolic conditions. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that presence of cancer may be associated with a lower likelihood of receiving depression treatment, perhaps due to cancer being a clinically dominant condition.