Evaluating psychosocial and best supportive care needs of cancer patients from rural regions following active cancer therapy for improving quality of life and therapeutic management

INTERVENTION: Interventions include involvement of allied health professionals to assess and assist the patient to manage patient concerns, where warranted. Allied health professionals may include counsellors (help participants with specific concerns e.g. establishing reciprocal understanding with family and friends regarding health issues being faced following therapy and the effects on lifestyle, physiotherapists to manage physiological concerns e.g. lymphodoema, Dieticians to aid with concerns around weight and/or dietry balance, Dermatologists where skin irritations persist or occur independently for other reasons, Exercise physiologist, if required to assist with appropriate exercise to aid in recovery, Social Worker to help participants manage lifestyle changes related to social networks, Psychologist if required for concerns such as depression. Outcomes of allied health professional assessments will enable appropriate intervention to be designed within a survivorship plan. Determination of the requirement for intervention is based on results from assessment of changes in each of the symptoms (fatigue, fear of cancer returning, depression, coping with home/work duties, learning to live with ‘new normal’), from baseline information. The timeframe is dependent on whether assessments from allied health professionals are warranted Participants in this trial will be followed up until 30 months from recruitment CONDITION: Cancer Psychosocial concerns for patients following active therapy Tumour groups, stages and therapies required PRIMARY OUTCOME: Gain an understanding of what is being experienced by individuals following cancer treatment, to inform the creation of a survivorship care plan (SCP) dedicated to the psychosocial and best supportive care needs of the individual. ; This outcome will be achieved using questionnaires and interviews. ; ; The questionnaires used are PROMIS29 and the Distress Thermometer and will be analysed according to the scoring tools for each test with in‐built result calculators. ; The interviews will be coded and a Grounded Theory technique used to evaluate the needs of patients. SECONDARY OUTCOME: To determine differences in needs between tumour groups and histological stages. ; Statistical analysis tools used will be the t‐test to compare the actual difference between the two means in relation to the variation in the data (different tumour groups). The p‐test will be used to determine the probability of obtaining a test statistic at least as extreme as the one that was actually observed. ; INCLUSION CRITERIA: Adult patients older than, 18 years of age Histological proven cancer (all tumour types) Male or Female Ability to comprehend questionnaire alone (or in juxtaposition with proxy, from commencement, in specific patients with acutely declining trajectory prediction) Willingness to participate in a questionnaire‐based study Informed consent Completed therapy during final two weeks of recruitment