Cancer Research for Patients
Cancer research exists to serve and support patients; to eliminate tumors or stop them from killing people. This research is conducted on many fronts and Future Oncology has the pleasure of publishing some of the latest advances in clinical and translational oncology. However, the cancer research system has historically left patients out of planning and conduct, which is usually detrimental to the benefit that patients gain from new products or regulations.
The concept of Patient Engagement seeks to rectify this oversight and, over recent years, has gained significant traction in cancer research, with the value of patient involvement in preclinical and clinical research being demonstrated consistently. Patient advocacy has become more commonplace on research councils and steering committees, although more work must still be done to realise the benefit that patient and public involvement brings to cancer research.
In Future Oncology’s latest collection, we compile our authors’ best content describing patient engagement in cancer research. Some of this research was conducted amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, where patient anxiety was particularly elevated and a focus on patients was more important. We also feature research from our recent special-focus issue on ‘Patient Engagement in Cancer Research’, which covers opportunities to engage patients in clinical trial design, screening programs, and antiracist approaches to engaging younger cancer patients. Our newly developed article type also features heavily: Plain Language Summaries of Publications, which use non-specialist language to describe results from complex studies in a more digestible manner.
