Executive summary: Background Skin cancer is the most common cancer in Caucasians and the incidence is increasing worldwide. There has been no qualitative systematic review looking at the needs and experiences of patients through the skin cancer journey.Objectives The main objective of this systematic review was to identify, appraise and synthesise the literature relating to the needs and experiences of people with a diagnosis of skin cancer.
Inclusion criteria: Adults with a diagnosis of skin cancer.The needs and experiences of people with skin cancer.All qualitative studies that described or analysed the needs and experiences with people who had been diagnosed with skin cancer.Search strategy The search strategy sought to identify both published and unpublished research studies. A three step search strategy was used, limited to English language papers.Methodological quality Each paper was independently assessed by two independent reviewers for methodological quality, using the critical appraisal instrument from Joanna Briggs Institute Qualitative Assessment of Review Instrument (QARI), prior to inclusion in the review.Data collection The standardised data extraction tool from JBI-QARI was used to extract data from the papers.Data synthesis The qualitative research findings were pooled using JBI-QARI approach. This involved the aggregation of findings.Results Only two studies were included. The 12 findings were grouped according to their similarities of meaning to form 4 categories. These four categories resulted in two synthesised findings. The diagnosis of skin cancer produces a range of emotional responses in individuals. Individuals also delay seeking medical help however once treated are satisfied with care.Conclusions There is very little good research on patient's experiences and needs of skin cancer. People require support in coming to terms with the diagnosis and there is a need for an educational intervention of some form to prevent delay in seeking medical help.Implications for practice There is a real need to increase knowledge of skin cancer so that people do not delay in seeking medical help as early diagnosis can dramatically improve both prognosis and the patient experience since early lesions are treated more simply compared with larger or neglected lesions. Health professionals caring for these patients need to understand the psychosocial concerns of this patient group in order to design services appropriately and to provide patients with the support they need and information that they can easily understand.Implications for research Results from this review have identified that the needs and experiences of individuals with skin cancer remains under-researched and this has implications for those caring for and delivering services to this group of patients. There are very few studies considering this aspect of patients' experiences and therefore a real need to conduct further research into the needs and experience of skin cancer patients.