About > Key Aims

The results will shed light on many critical topics that are as yet unclear and that will have a significant impact on future psychosocial/HRQOL care. There will be a greater understanding of these issues not only in common cancer disease sites, such as breast and colorectal, but also in rarer diseases such as glioblastoma, small-cell-lung cancer and mesothelioma.

The data will be an invaluable source for insight into the psychosocial issues cancer patients face across different cultures, at different times in the disease cycle and as such help future researchers, health care workers, and governments to plan patient care, clinical trials and services for improved psychosocial/HRQOL issues. Critically, this research will provide a rich database for other investigators to use for future studies into psychosocial oncology.

The short-term goals are:

• To provide a series of major publications in key journals that will boost improvements in psychosocial aspects of care for our target group
• To hold major psychosocial symposiums to discuss results and key topics and find consensus with senior partners and institutions for work/program and results or to check if analysis or plans within the program should be readdressed;
• To raise policy-makers and health care workers awareness of the psychosocial/HRQOL status of a cancer patient by presenting findings and results at major conferences in collaboration with participating partners.

The long-term goals are:

• To provide an up-to-date consensus statement supported by key psychosocial groups addressing the most topical areas in psychosocial oncology, thus leading to improved services;
• To help facilitate long-term understanding and discussion of the values of psychosocial issues and HRQOL and the impact of this in the real world, thus helping both future planning of new treatments and understanding of cancer care;
• To assemble a database of key psychosocial and HRQOL data, useful for future research, to explore future key questions in psychosocial oncology, thus helping future patient care and research.