Cancer Survivorship Clinics in Tertiary Care: A Scoping Review Protocol

Vollständiger Abstract

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Background As the number of people living with and beyond cancer grow, quality of life has become an increasing priority. Specialised tertiary care centres, as they follow patients throughout their cancer treatment and beyond, represent an opportunity to engage with and provide comprehensive support to patients. However, the support offered is often limited or fragmented, and patients consistently report unmet needs in survivorship, including addressing the short- and longer-term side effects of medical treatment, psychosocial, and physical needs. Additionally, the delivery of survivorship care in tertiary services still varies substantially across different facilities locally and internationally. Despite the widespread need for structured survivorship care, limited consensus exists regarding best practice, and evidence for the organisation and delivery of survivorship clinics or care. Accordingly, this scoping review aims to map current models of survivorship clinics/care in tertiary care to help inform future service development. Methods A comprehensive search will be conducted in Medline, CINAHL, Embase, Cochrane Library and Scopus, along with grey literature sources, following the PRISMA-ScR guidelines. The study selection will be guided by the PCC (Population, Concept, Context) framework, where the population will include adult cancer survivors (≥18 years), the concept will address models of cancer survivorship clinics/care, and the context will be tertiary cancer centres. Data will be extracted on service structure, organisation, multidisciplinary team composition, scope of care, and means of assessing and addressing survivorship needs. Discussion This scoping review will map and synthesise international models of cancer survivorship clinics/care in tertiary cancer centres, highlighting variations in service delivery, organisational structure, and patient involvement. By identifying gaps and inconsistencies in the existing literature, the findings will inform the development and refinement of survivorship services, including potential application within the Irish cancer centre system. Registration Open Science Framework: DOI: 10.17605/OSF.IO/N7UGV