Recent Articles
Adolescents and young adults with cancer have distinct developmental and psychosocial needs that require care models bridging pediatric and adult oncology systems. While survival outcomes have improved, there is growing recognition of the need to strengthen coordinated care, psychosocial support, and survivorship services. In Ontario, regional and community-based cancer programs play a central role in delivering accessible care and are well-positioned to support adolescents and young adults closer to home. However, variation in infrastructure, workforce capacity, and system-level coordination influences how developmentally appropriate oncology care is implemented. Existing literature has focused on tertiary and specialty centers, highlighting the need to leverage and strengthen regional systems, providers, and community resources to support high-quality adolescent and young adult cancer care.
Screening for clinical trials is challenging for clinicians due to its time-consuming and repetitive nature. The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) offers an opportunity to improve screening productivity and reproducibility. Pancreatic cancer is characterized by increasing incidence, poor survival outcomes, and an urgent need for improved management strategies.
Cognitive impairments, a prevalent quality-of-life concern in breast cancer (BC), are particularly pronounced in women having undergone adjuvant chemotherapy. These impairments—affecting executive function, attention, and processing speed—are often underdiagnosed, with no established treatments. Exercise is a potential intervention to mitigate cancer-related cognitive impairment (CRCI). Since virtual care delivery is feasible, remotely delivered exercise interventions for CRCI management in patients with BC may be explored.
Accurate esophageal cancer staging relies on 18F fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (18F FDG-PET), but its interpretation is complex and time-intensive. This diagnostic burden is exacerbated by significant workforce shortages in both radiology and surgery, thus necessitating automated support systems. The emergence of advanced large language models (LLMs) has raised expectations for their potential to fulfill this role in complex medical tasks.
Mobile Health (mHealth) represents a promising instrument for optimizing symptom management and important lifestyle strategies that enhance self-care and the quality of healthcare for cancer patients. The ALIBIRD mHealth platform is a digital health solution specifically designed for the telemonitoring of oncology patients, fostering patient empowerment and supporting clinical decision-making.
The number of cancer survivors is steadily increasing worldwide, leading to an increased demand for long-term follow-up and supportive care. Many survivors face ongoing physical and psychosocial issues that highlight the need for innovative management approaches. Mobile health applications offer potential benefits by facilitating patient-led follow-ups, self-management, and more efficient use of healthcare resources. Although the market for cancer-related mobile apps has grown rapidly, their sustainability and scientific basis remain unclear. In the EU, the Medical Device Regulation (MDR), which has been in effect since May 2021, has introduced stricter criteria for classifying medical devices, including certain software applications. While aiming to improve patient safety, MDR could pose challenges for small companies and academic developers, potentially limiting the availability of such applications. No scoping review has delineated the changes in active applications before and after the implementation of the new legislation regulating medical devices.
A peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) for vesicant or long-term chemotherapy (CTx) is recommended for safe and sustainable drug delivery. However, maintaining its benefits requires regular and careful self-management. Although medical staff provide education and telephone consultation, proactive support accessible at any time or location remains limited. Therefore, we developed a rule-based chatbot to support PICC self-management.
Reliance on telehealth increased dramatically during the COVID-19 pandemic, introducing new opportunities to consider the use of telehealth across the cancer control continuum. However, patient, clinician, and staff perspectives about the types of cancer care appointments that are considered appropriate and the clinical care needs to support expanded remote care services are limited. Understanding older adults’ diverse technology needs and perspectives is especially important given that they comprise a large and growing proportion of the cancer patient population.
