Psychosocial Health and Quality of Life Across the Cancer Care Continuum

Dear Colleagues,

Advances in cancer detection and therapy have transformed many once-fatal diagnoses into chronic or survivable conditions, leading to a rapidly expanding population of individuals living with and beyond cancer. As survival rates improve, there is increasing recognition that the cancer journey extends far beyond biomedical endpoints. Many patients and survivors experience substantial psychological distress, cognitive and functional challenges, fatigue, fear of recurrence, and disruptions to identity, relationships, and social participation. These multidimensional concerns critically shape long-term well-being and are increasingly central to contemporary oncology practice.

This Special Issue, “Psychosocial Health and Quality of Life Across the Cancer Care Continuum,” aims to bring together cutting-edge research that deepens our understanding of cancer patients’ lived experiences and advances evidence-based approaches to optimise mental health, functioning, and quality of life across the full spectrum of care, from diagnosis and treatment to survivorship and beyond. We particularly welcome interdisciplinary contributions spanning behavioural science, psycho-oncology, survivorship research, health services and systems, qualitative inquiry, rehabilitation science, and digital innovation, including artificial intelligence and novel platforms for patient-reported outcome monitoring.

We invite high-quality original research (quantitative, qualitative or mixed-methods studies), systematic reviews, and meta-analyses. Topics of interest include psychological adaptation after cancer treatment, fear of recurrence, anxiety and depression, cancer-related fatigue and cognitive impairment, body image concerns, caregiver burden, cultural adaptation of PROMs, and digital or AI-enabled supportive interventions.

We look forward to receiving your submissions.

Dr. Qin Xiang Ng
Dr. Serene Si Ning Goh
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Cancers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.