Care needs of patients with cancer: A scoping review study

Aims: cancer patients have to face with the disease, invasive treatments and adverse effects of the disease and treatments in a long term period. These people have various needs in long term process of diagnosis, treatments and recovery that often remain unknown and unmet. The present research aimed at evaluating the care needs of cancer patients in various aspects of life. Materials and Methods: this is a scoping review study. For obtaining relevant studies, research keywords searched in Persian and English scientific databases. Totally, 61 articles in Persian language and 265 articles in English language obtained. After evaluating these articles based on inclusion and exclusion criteria, 6 article in Persian and 28 articles in English language included in this study and their results analyzed. Findings: after evaluating and analyzing the results of included studies, cancer patients’ care need classified into five main domains: supportive needs, informational needs, spiritual needs, sexual needs and family needs. Conclusion: the results of our study could be considered by healthcare professionals such as physicians and nurses for evaluation and identification of care needs of cancer patients and meeting specific needs of individual patients.