Paradigm Shift in the Public Health Surveillance of Cancer: Traditional and Innovative Approaches
A special issue of Epidemiologia (ISSN 2673-3986).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 15 February 2027 | Viewed by 226
Special Issue Editors
Interests: antimicrobial resistance; antimicrobial stewardship; knowledge–attitude–practice (KAP); qualitative methods; quantitative methods; epidemiology; public health; novel antimicrobials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: epidemiology; evidence-based medicine; burden of disease; prevention; public health; cancer
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Cancer remains one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality, especially in the context of premature mortality, posing a growing challenge for public health systems worldwide. Demographic transitions, including population aging and urbanization, together with changes in environmental exposures, behavioral risk factors, and lifestyle patterns, are reshaping the global cancer landscape. The increasingly complex interplay of these factors contributes to complex epidemiological patterns in cancer, marked by widening disparities in incidence, survival, and access to prevention and care across populations and regions. Traditional epidemiological methods remain essential for establishing cancer risk and prognostic factors, identifying populations at increased risk, and informing primary, secondary, and tertiary prevention strategies. Furthermore, public health interventions, screening programs, and survivorship care continue to evolve, increasingly emphasizing patient-centered outcomes, such as quality of life (QoL), disability/functionality, and long-term well-being.
Established foundations in public health methods may be complemented by innovative methods that leverage real-time and population-level digital data to gain insights into public awareness, information-seeking behavior, patient preferences toward cancer prevention and screening, and responses to public health messaging. Analyses of online health-seeking patterns, search engine queries (e.g., originating from Google Trends), and engagement on social media platforms offer new opportunities to monitor behavioral trends, detect emerging concerns in real time, assess the reach and impact of public health campaigns, and identify disparities in access to cancer-related information. Integrating traditional epidemiology with digital epidemiology and infodemiological approaches has the potential to enhance cancer surveillance by enabling earlier detection of changes in disease burden, risk-related behaviors, and public perceptions, while also improving the evaluation and targeting of prevention and screening efforts. Such integration may ultimately contribute to more responsive, inclusive, and equitable cancer control strategies.
The objective of our Special Issue is to improve the comprehensive understanding of cancer burden and support the development of targeted, equitable, and evidence-based public health strategies for cancer control in the age of the “digitally informed patient”. We invite original research papers, reviews, or perspective articles that address the emerging trends in cancer burden, exposures to risk factors, innovations in cancer prevention and screening strategies, and QoL outcomes among people with cancer, in addition to the application of infodemiological methods and data sources for cancer surveillance, monitoring, and public health decision-making.
Dr. Márió Gajdács
Dr. Irena Ilic
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- cancer
- epidemiology
- digital epidemiology
- infodemiology
- public health
- screening
- quality of life
- burden of disease
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