What are the post-treatment information needs of rural cancer survivors in Australia? A systematic literature review

Rural, regional, and remote cancer survivors often lack sufficient information to transition to their home life after treatment and discharge from a metropolitan hospital. In this review, 52 articles were examined, revealing a diverse range of information needs that were not met from the perspective of rural cancer survivors across Australia. This included information on prognosis and recovery, management of physical and psychosocial side effects from treatment, guidance around changing lifestyle factors, and referrals to appropriate support services. The review identified that the mode of delivery of information were not ideal in terms of frequency and accessibility; survivors also preferred information to be conveyed through a trusted health professional via face-to-face or written care plans. In particular, GPs were involved in several studies, highlighting that rural GPs wanted to be better informed and supported in order to meet the information needs of rural cancer survivors. Implications of this review are that rural cancer survivors value obtaining relevant information from their GPs, suggesting that survivorship care needs to be coordinated across tertiary care and primary care settings to meet the information needs of rural cancer survivors. Read the original article here.