Self-management programme for cancer patients: a literature review

Background: With increased cancer survivorship, cancer, in its chronic form, self-management among cancer patients has become an international research focus. Self-management programmes are used to guide the self-care process. Over the past 10 years, six self-management programmes for cancer patients (Taking CHARGE, Expert Patients Programme, Living with Cancer Education Program, Focus Program, PRO-SELF Program and Oncologist-referred exercise self-management programme) were used in a variety of self-management studies for cancer patients. Aim: The aims of this paper are to describe, compare and critique these six self-management programmes that are commonly used to guide self-management for cancer patients, and propose directions for new self-management programme development among cancer patients. Methods: Medline, Pubmed and Embase, Springer, Elsevier, EBSCO and ProQuest were searched for literatures on self-management programmes for cancer patients from 2000 to November 2010. Search terms such as 'self-management' or 'self-care' or 'patient education' or 'self-management' or 'self-care' or 'self-efficacy', 'intervention' or 'program*' 'cancer' or 'carcinoma' or 'neoplasms' were used. Results: Comparison and critique of these programmes revealed important limitations of cancer self-management programmes including lack of the facilitators' training process, failure to assess the cultural differences and failure to cover all of the outcome measures. Conclusion: Researchers and clinicians need to build more individualized and dynamic self-management programmes that parallel advances in clinical research and practice for cancer patients.