Mental Health and Cancer: Why It Is Time to Innovate and Integrate—A Call to Action

Surgical, radio-oncological, and medical anti-cancer therapies have developed at pace and scale in recent years, yet there remains a huge unmet need for mental health in cancer care. Recent experience in the COVID-19 pandemic has added to recognition of this unmet need. There needs to be more effective clinical integration of relevant services, which must be informed by patient choice and clinical need, and accessible throughout the patient’s whole cancer journey. This needs to be accompanied by training and research integration as well as more effective and creative use of technology such as virtual reality and simulation, quality assuring apps, and mobile technologies. Finally, as a clinical community we need to drive a shift in culture towards measurement of patient quality of life as a marker of treatment effectiveness. We also need to support our own clinical workforce with their own mental health needs so that we prevent the alarming rates of burnout prevalent among clinicians treating cancer. The call to action for innovation and staff support has been amplified by experience in the COVID-19 pandemic. PATIENT SUMMARY: This report highlights the unmet need for mental health in cancer care. Patients need effective access to psychological support and mental health services throughout their cancer journey, including better use of technology. There is also a need to support the psychological wellbeing of cancer clinicians.