Patient Navigation in Cancer Care
Summary
Patient navigation in cancer care is a patient-centred strategy designed to guide individuals through the complex landscape of screening, diagnosis, treatment, survivorship and palliative services. Navigators—who may be trained lay personnel, nurses or social workers—identify and address barriers at personal, logistical and systemic levels. By coordinating appointments, facilitating communication between multidisciplinary teams and linking patients to community resources, navigation aims to reduce delays from screening abnormalities to diagnostic resolution, expedite treatment initiation, improve adherence and enhance patient satisfaction. Evidence indicates that navigation programmes can mitigate health disparities by providing targeted support for socioeconomically disadvantaged or marginalised groups. Although most implementation has occurred in high-income settings, growing interest in low- and middle-income countries emphasises adaptation of navigation models to resource-constrained environments. As health systems increasingly embrace value-based care, patient navigation is recognised as a means to improve outcomes, optimise resource use and foster equity across the cancer care continuum.
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Patient Navigation in Cancer Care publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in patient navigation in cancer care across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Patient navigation: A structured intervention in which navigators guide patients through healthcare processes to overcome barriers and access timely care.
Diagnostic resolution: The point at which an abnormal screening result is fully investigated and a clear diagnostic outcome is established.
Survivorship phase: The period following completion of primary cancer treatment, focusing on monitoring, rehabilitation and quality-of-life support.
Lay health worker: An individual without formal clinical qualifications who is trained to provide health education, system navigation and psychosocial support.
Health disparities: Systematic differences in health outcomes and access to care among distinct population groups due to social, economic or environmental factors.
References
- Patient navigation across the cancer care continuum: An overview of systematic reviews and emerging literature. CA A Cancer Journal for Clinicians (2023).
- Patient Navigation in Cancer Treatment: A Systematic Review. Current Oncology Reports (2024).
- Patient navigation services for cancer care in low-and middle-income countries: A scoping review. PLOS ONE (2019).
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