Call for papers - Quality of life and supportive care in cancer

Guest Editors

Eileen Shinn, PhD, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, USA
Christina Signorelli, PhD, UNSW Sydney, Australia

Submission Status: Open | Submission Deadline: 28 February 2025

The Quality of life and supportive care in cancer Collection invites researchers to contribute their work on enhancing the understanding of supportive care interventions, patient-reported outcomes, and psychosocial support in the context of cancer. This Collection aims to showcase research that explores the integration of palliative care, technology-enabled supportive care, and personalized approaches to improve the quality of life for individuals affected by cancer.

New Content Item This Collection supports and amplifies research related to SDG 3: Good Health & Well-Being, and SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities.

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Meet the Guest Editors

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Eileen Shinn, PhD, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, USA

Dr Shinn is an Associate Professor in Behavioral Science at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Her research interests include behavioral interventions for patients on active treatment, increasing engagement to supportive mobile technology, and modeling long-term adherence to chronic regimens in cancer. She has had extensive experience testing theoretically based psychosocial interventions to reduce depressive symptoms and promote adherence to preventive regimens in ovarian and head and neck cancer patients. These studies incorporated multiple self-report timepoints in cancer patients during active treatment.

Christina Signorelli, PhD, UNSW Sydney, Australia

Dr Signorelli is a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow at UNSW Sydney, Australia. Her research interests focus on understanding the physical and psychosocial impact of being diagnosed with a serious or chronic illness in childhood (such as cancer), and developing evidence-based resources and interventions to alleviate their potentially lifelong burden on the patient and their families. She is currently involved in numerous research projects which explore childhood, adolescents, and young adult cancer survivors’ health and wellbeing, specifically their outcomes in long-term survivorship. Dr Signorelli is particularly interested in survivors’ health behaviors and engagement, as well as patient empowerment and self-advocacy.

About the Collection

BMC Cancer welcomes submissions to the Quality of life and supportive care in Cancer Collection. Cancer not only poses physical challenges but also profoundly impacts the overall quality of life of individuals affected by the disease. Thus, supportive care has been defined as the prevention and management of the adverse effects of cancer and its treatment. It is crucial at every stage of the cancer journey, from diagnosis through treatment and beyond, and requires a coordinated, person-centered, and holistic approach that respects the individual's preferences and involves appropriate support from their family and friends.

The goal of supportive care is to maintain or improve the quality of life for people with cancer and to ensure they receive the maximum benefit from their treatment. This includes improving rehabilitation, preventing secondary cancers, supporting survivorship, and providing end-of-life care. Advancing our collective understanding of patient quality of life and supportive care is essential to enhance the overall cancer care continuum. Significant progress has been made in recognizing the importance of patient-reported outcomes, integrating survivorship care plans, and implementing multidisciplinary supportive care teams.

Continued research in this field holds the potential for further advancements, including the refinement of personalized supportive care approaches, the utilization of technology for remote supportive care delivery, and the exploration of novel interventions to address the long-term effects of cancer treatment. Potential topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

Patient-reported outcomes in cancer care
Management of cancer-related symptoms
Management of cancer treatment-related symptoms
Multidisciplinary interventions and integrative therapies
Integration of palliative care in cancer treatment
Psychosocial support and social care in cancer patients
Technology-enabled supportive care interventions (digital health intervention)
Rehabilitation and survivorship care
Financial toxicity
Sexual health and fertility preservation

There are currently no articles in this collection.

Submission Guidelines

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This Collection welcomes submission of original Research Articles. Should you wish to submit a different article type, please read our submission guidelines to confirm that type is accepted by the journal. Articles for this Collection should be submitted via our submission system, Snapp. During the submission process you will be asked whether you are submitting to a Collection, please select "Quality of life and supportive care in cancer" from the dropdown menu.

Articles will undergo the journal’s standard peer-review process and are subject to all of the journal’s standard policies. Articles will be added to the Collection as they are published.

The Editors have no competing interests with the submissions which they handle through the peer review process. The peer review of any submissions for which the Editors have competing interests is handled by another Editorial Board Member who has no competing interests.