Thanks to advances in prevention, early detection strategies and novel therapies, cancer survival rates have increased dramatically. Even though this is highly encouraging, it highlights the need to create high quality survivorship care plans, since many cancer survivors often face a new reality once treatment is over.
The aim of this project is to design a screener (Life S-Can) which can effectively assess dietary patterns, lifestyle, sleeping habits, mental health and social support in cancer survivors, with the hope that it can be implemented into routine clinical care to assess patients’ needs and be a first step in designing a personalised and effective follow-up care plan. – Dr Alice Chaplin
INSPIRE grant title: Life S-Can: a novel clinical tool to effectively assess individual needs in cancer survivorship care and improve quality of life in cancer survivors
Background
Medical care for people living with and beyond cancer often focuses mainly on monitoring if the disease returns. However, other important factors like diet, physical activity, sleep, and emotional well-being, which significantly affect quality of life and long-term health, are frequently overlooked. Currently, there are no simple, proven tools that health professionals can use to quickly check these lifestyle areas in cancer survivors.
Aims and objectives
This project aimed to create a simple questionnaire to help identify survivors who need extra support with their lifestyle and mental health. Our goals were to design the tool based on expert recommendations, test if it provides accurate information, and find out if patients and healthcare professionals find it useful in real-world clinic settings.
How the study was carried out
The project was divided into three steps:
- Step 1: We worked with 27 international experts to decide which questions were most important to include. We then tested these questions with 12 cancer survivors to make sure they were easy to understand.
- Step 2: A total of 105 cancer survivors completed the screener alongside a range of tests, such as body scans and activity trackers, and completed questionnaires, to see if the screener results matched these measurements.
- Step 3: We held group discussions with patients, health professionals, and patient organisations to understand the challenges survivors face and how this tool could best be used in clinical settings.
Key findings
The final screener covers six key areas: body weight, physical activity, diet, smoking, sleep, and mental health. We found that the questionnaire is quick to finish (about 10 minutes) and easy to use without help. Preliminary results show it is effective at identifying patterns in physical activity, sleep, and smoking, and further work needs to be done to improve some questions so they can properly capture other relevant information regarding diet, body composition changes and mental health. In our discussions, patients shared that they often feel a gap in support once their initial treatment ends, especially regarding nutrition and emotional health. Both patients and health professionals felt that the screener is a valuable way to highlight these unmet needs and encourage self-reflection.
Conclusion
This project has successfully created a new, practical tool to help patients and health professionals focus on health beyond cancer recurrence. Our findings show that survivors need more personalised guidance on how to live healthily. We recommend that this type of lifestyle screening becomes a standard part of follow-up care to ensure every patient receives the support they need to improve their overall quality of life.
Impact
This project has been a key milestone in Alice’s professional trajectory, giving her invaluable experience. Her research has established a foundational framework for improving the management of people living with and beyond cancer in the Balearic Islands, identifying critical gaps in current survivorship care. The next steps would be an implementation study within the Balearic Islands’ health system.
Grant publication
- Chaplin A, Prohens L, Wordsworth J, et al – Identifying the key components of a diet and lifestyle screener for people living with and beyond cancer: an e-Delphi study – BMJ Open 2025;15:e097084. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-097084
- Chaplin A, Wordsworth J, Prohens L, Obrador-Hevia A, Guillot M, et al. (2025) Validation and pilot feasibility study of a novel screener to assess diet, lifestyle and mental health in people living with and beyond cancer: Study protocols. PLOS ONE 20(6): e0323671.