JMIR Cancer

Eastern Asia has historically had the highest global incidence and mortality rates of gastric cancer (GC), while substantial disparities exist between countries. The overall burden of GC remains insufficiently explored.

Virtual communities, platforms that facilitate social connections, have gained attention in the medical field, particularly for their potential to support patients. However, there is currently no virtual community specifically designed for outpatient cancer patients. This study introduces a customized virtual community aimed at providing companionship and sharing to enhance the quality of life (QOL) among these patients.

Adolescent and young adult survivors of cancer (AYAs, aged 15-39) frequently engage in hazardous alcohol use, which can have multiple mental and physical health effects.

Kentucky has the highest all-site cancer incidence and mortality rates in the United States. Conducting needs assessments in a large geographic area, such as an entire state, poses challenges in collecting qualitative data from diverse rural and urban contexts. In 2021, a steering committee was formed to drive a multimethod, statewide cancer needs assessment (CNA) to identify the future priorities for all cancer-related care in Kentucky.

In contemporary health care, patient-centered care has emerged as a pivotal paradigm shift that redefines the traditional physician-centric model. Particularly in the context of cancer care, marked by its intricate nature and emotional impact, there is a pressing requirement to rethink how health care is delivered. In this context, comprehensive cancer care networks (CCCNs) provide a new means of structuring and delivering quality cancer care, recognizing each patient’s unique preferences and needs.

Understanding the impact of online cancer misinformation exposure on health outcomes is an area of growing concern, but few methods exist to objectively measure this exposure. The primary aim of this paper is to describe the lessons learned in using web-monitoring software to measure exposure to online cancer misinformation among cancer patients. These lessons learned emerged from our experience conducting a prospective pilot study from 10-2022 to 08-2023 wherein we adopted commercially available web-monitoring software to capture cancer-related web content. N=56 cancer patients completed a baseline survey and n=17 of these participants installed web-monitoring software on their personal computer for 30 days and completed a follow-up survey. We use implementation outcomes to describe the feasibility of this methodological approach using lessons learned in three topic areas: (1) data quality, (2) software implementation, and (3) participant acceptability. We found the web-monitoring data to be appropriate for our research aim to objectively measure cancer misinformation exposure, although compatibility issues with social media websites and mobile devices negatively impacted data quality. A complex installation process negatively impacted implementation and caused an unknown number of participants to drop out after the baseline survey. Among participants who completed the study, reported acceptability of web-monitoring software for research purposes was high, though potentially biased by selective retention. This pilot study testing web-monitoring software for research purposes among cancer patients demonstrates high acceptability but low feasibility due to implementation barriers. We propose practical solutions to address these barriers and believe the lessons learned here offer a promising foundation for improving methods to objectively measure patient exposure to online cancer information. Future studies should focus on exploring perceptions of web-monitoring among non-participants, considering alternative approaches, and expanding web-monitoring to include mobile devices.

A public involvement group consisting of four public contributors with lived experience of cancer diagnosis contributed to two cancer research projects that focused on optimising the diagnostic pathways for patients with suspected cancer. The public contributors have been involved from the start of the projects and were involved in aspects of the design, analysis and dissemination alongside research and clinical teams. Despite public involvement in cancer research being seen as a key element of the research process, there is still a limited understanding of what works well and how to do it in a meaningful way for both researchers and public contributors.

Chemotherapy causes physiological, psychological, and social impairments in patients with cancer. Frailty reduces the effectiveness of chemotherapy and increases the toxicity associated with radiotherapy and chemotherapy, the possibility of chemotherapy failure, and adverse outcomes. However, factors affecting chemotherapy-related frailty in patients with cancer remain unclarified.

Cervical cancer (CC) screening participation remains suboptimal among vulnerable populations in France. This study aimed to develop and evaluate AppDate-You, a chatbot-based decision aid, to support women from socioeconomically disadvantaged areas in the French Occitanie region to make informed decisions about CC screening, particularly human papillomavirus self-sampling (HPVss).

Digital health portals are online platforms allowing individuals to access their personal information and communicate with health care providers. While digital health portals have been associated with improved health outcomes and more streamlined health care processes, their impact on individuals living with or beyond cancer remains underexplored.

Breast cancer is the most prevalent form of cancer worldwide, with 2.3 million new diagnoses in 2022. Recent advancements in treatment have led to a shift in the utilization of chemotherapy-targeted immunotherapy from a postoperative adjuvant to a preoperative neoadjuvant approach in select cases, resulting in enhanced survival outcomes. A pathological complete response (pCR) is a critical prognostic marker, with higher pCR rates linked to improved overall and disease-free survival.

Patients with cancer and cancer survivors often suffer from multiple chronic health conditions, which can impact symptom burden and treatment outcomes. Despite the high prevalence of multimorbidity, research on cancer prognosis has predominantly focused on cancers in isolation. There has been growing interest in machine-learning techniques for use in cancer studies. However, these methods have not been applied in the context of supportive care for patients with cancer who have multimorbidity. Moreover, few studies have investigated the associations between these clusters and mortality outcomes.