Cancer Disparities and Health Equity: Challenges, Insights, and Transformative Strategies

Dear Colleagues,

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LGBTQI+) people represent an “ignored epidemic” in cancer care, facing disproportionate cancer burden and unique psychosocial challenges. These include higher levels of distress and sexual concerns, reduced family support, barriers to accessing services, poor communication with providers, and lower satisfaction with care. The American Society of Clinical Oncology has recognized this disparity, highlighting limited knowledge of LGBTQI+ healthcare needs, outcomes, and effective interventions. Consequently, providers and policymakers remain ill-prepared to deliver culturally safe and inclusive cancer prevention, treatment, and survivorship support. It is essential that these health are addressed.

Research on LGBTQI+ cancer suvivorship and care is at a critical juncture. After significant investments in research that shed light on structural bias, federal funding in the United States took a 180 degree turn in 2025. With sudden grant terminations, research focused on health equity broadly, with specific targeting of research to advance LGBTQI+ health equity, scientists have had to stop work, pause, and redirect reseearch efforts to comply with new U.S. federal priorities for research.

As a result of this sudden defunding of health equity research, some U.S. scientists may have research with partial results that may still be informative to the research community at large. Additioanlly, researchers outside the U.S. are well positioned to make strides in LGBTQI+-specific cancer health equity research that well may outpace work in the U.S. with its current restrictions.

This Special Issue invites research involving LGBTQI+ cancer patients and survivors, focusing on public health, social sciences, supportive care interventions, clinical trials and training interventions that advance LGBTQI+ cancer health equity. Examples may include but are not restricted to:

• Evidence from LGBTQI+-focused cancer research studies prematurely terminated in the U.S. in 2025, as well as those that were refinanced but endured a gap in funding. Discussions of the impact of termination or suspension of funding and implications of the publication of incomplete data are welcome. Sufficient data collection to provide a robust discussion of incomplete findings are critical for manuscripts to be accepted in the Special Issue.
• Innovations in methodologies, interventions, and approaches that are novel and/or poised to lead future advancements in LGBTQI+-focused cancer research (from research conducted in any country or state).
• Rigorous LGBTQI+ cancer randomized controled trials, comparative effectiveness research, qualitative and mixed methods approaches.
• Science that systematically quantifies and/or qualitatively describes the state of the science and scientists that focus on LGBTQI cancer research and implications for the field
• Editorials that synthesize vital information for LGBTQI-focused cancer research in the current environment.

A limited number of submissions may qualify for discounted open access fees. Please include justification for discount request with your manuscript submission.

Dr. Mandi Pratt-Chapman
Prof. Dr. Jane Ussher
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.

• scientific censorship
• terminated grants
• identity politics and health
• LGBTQI+ cancer health equity
• LGBTQI+ cancer survivorship and care