Integrated Hospital Care Pathways for Cancer Patients in Complex Clinical Scenarios

Dear Colleagues,

Cancer care increasingly involves patients with advanced disease, multimorbidity, frailty, treatment-related toxicities, psychosocial vulnerability, and complex decision-making needs. In this context, hospitals are no longer merely places where cancer treatments are delivered; they are complex systems in which diagnostic, therapeutic, supportive, rehabilitative, emergency, intensive, and palliative services must be carefully coordinated. Integrated hospital care pathways are therefore becoming essential to ensure timely, safe, patient-centered, and sustainable oncology care.

This Special Issue invites high-quality original research, reviews, implementation studies, protocols, quality improvement reports, and real-world evidence studies addressing how hospitals can organize cancer care more effectively. The recent literature highlights several major areas of innovation: multidisciplinary and interprofessional care models; early integration of supportive and palliative care; hospital-based symptom management pathways; electronic patient-reported outcomes; remote monitoring after discharge or during systemic treatments; digital health and artificial intelligence; patient navigation; care transitions between hospital, home, hospice, and community services; and strategies to reduce avoidable emergency department visits, intensive care admissions, and hospitalizations.

Submissions are particularly encouraged when they address clinically complex scenarios, including advanced cancer, older or frail patients, hematologic malignancies, oncologic emergencies, complex discharge planning, end-of-life hospital care, and caregiver involvement. Manuscripts focusing on equity of access, health service organization, workforce competencies, quality indicators, patient experience, shared decision-making, and value-based oncology are also welcome.

Contributions to this Special Issue will help define how modern hospitals can move from fragmented cancer treatment to integrated cancer care. The goal is to provide readers of Healthcare with robust, practical, and internationally relevant evidence to improve outcomes, continuity, safety, quality of life, and dignity for cancer patients facing complex clinical situations.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Paolo Cotogni
Guest Editor

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