Cancer Survival and Survivorship in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Health System Barriers, Psychosocial Challenges, and Policy Solutions

Cancer survival remains one of the most striking indicators of global health inequality. In many low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), patients are diagnosed at later stages, have limited access to effective treatment, and face substantial economic and systemic barriers to care. These challenges reflect wider issues in health system capacity, policy implementation, and the social determinants of health. Despite growing awareness of global cancer inequities, comprehensive, data-driven research on how health systems and policies shape survival outcomes remain limited. Strengthening this evidence base is essential to bridge survival gaps worldwide.Cancer outcomes extend beyond diagnosis, treatment access, and mortality. Patients and survivors may experience physical, emotional, social, and financial challenges during and after treatment. These include reduced health-related quality of life (HRQoL), psychological distress, anxiety, depression, fear of recurrence, stigma, social isolation, financial toxicity, and limited access to psychosocial and supportive care. Understanding these experiences is essential for developing patient-centred policies that improve treatment continuation, functional recovery, long-term wellbeing, and survivorship outcomes.This Research Topic seeks to advance understanding of the structural, social, and policy-level barriers affecting cancer survival and survivorship in LMICs and to identify practical and scalable solutions. We invite multidisciplinary contributions from epidemiology, oncology, public health, health economics, psychology, social work, and policy studies. The Topic will examine how system inefficiencies, funding models, governance frameworks, and social conditions influence early detection, diagnostic delays, referral pathways, cancer diagnosis, treatment, survival, and life after cancer. These factors have a substantial impact on cancer survival and long-term outcomes in LMICs. It aims to generate actionable insights that can guide reform, promote equity, and improve both survival and quality of life in resource-constrained settings.We welcome submissions addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:• Health system performance and access barriers affecting early detection, diagnostic pathways, referral and treatment initiation, treatment completion, follow-up care, survival, and long-term outcomes.• Socioeconomic and demographic determinants of cancer survival and survivorship disparities across LMIC populations.• Cancer survivorship experiences and HRQoL, including physical, emotional, social, and functional outcomes.• Psychological distress and psychosocial challenges, including anxiety, depression, fear of recurrence, stigma, coping, social support, social isolation, and unmet supportive care needs.• Financial toxicity and other economic or social barriers affecting treatment adherence, recovery, follow-up care, and long-term survivorship.• Access to psychosocial, palliative, rehabilitative, and other supportive care services.• Policy and governance innovations that improve cancer care delivery, financing, and survivorship care.• Epidemiological modelling, health economics, machine learning, and other quantitative approaches to address survival and survivorship outcomes.• Interdisciplinary and community-based approaches to developing equitable and sustainable cancer control strategies.• Empirical and review articles addressing cancer survival, survivorship, HRQoL, psychosocial outcomes, health system barriers, or policy solutions in LMICs.We encourage diverse methodologies, including registry analyses, population-based studies, mixed-methods research, qualitative investigations, and health policy evaluations. Studies of psychosocial wellbeing or HRQoL should demonstrate a clear connection to cancer survival, treatment, follow-up care, long-term survivorship, or other relevant cancer outcomes. Topic editors: Marco Galvez-Nino, Renato Moretti-Marques, Maria Chidi Christiana Onyedibe Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/85187/cancer-survival-and-survivorship-in-low--and-middle-income-countries-health-system-barriers-psychosocial-challenges-and-policy-solutions