Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
Woodhouse Lane,
LS1 3HE
Special edition journal tackles cancer inequalities
The special issue has been co-edited by Dr Laura Ashley, Senior Lecturer in Psychology in our School of Social Sciences, with Dr Iain Lawrie at the University of Manchester. It can be viewed here.
Dr Ashley explained: “ More than 50 papers were submitted to the call for this special issue in May 2015 - the most for any Psycho-Oncology special issue to date - and 148 reviewers based in 14 different countries have been involved in peer-reviewing the submissions. Sixteen of the submissions are included in the issue: three literature reviews, nine research papers, three clinical correspondence pieces and a report from the International Federation of Psycho-Oncology Societies.”
Dr Ashley and Dr Lawrie’s editorial for the journal is entitled ‘Tackling inequalities in cancer care and outcomes: psychosocial mechanisms and targets for change’. In this, they argue that cancer health disparities are a global problem and priority, with countries less developed than the West seeing incidence and mortality rates for most cancers rising when they are now falling in many Western countries.
Dr Ashley said: “This special issue of Psycho-Oncology aims to highlight the contribution that psychosocial oncology research can make in helping to tackle disparities across the cancer continuum - from screening to diagnosis, treatment and care, and into survivorship - in relation to factors such as education, ethnicity, comorbidity, residential location, and relationship status.”
Dr Ashley is also co-author of one of the 16 papers entitled ‘Disparities in psychosocial cancer care: A report from the International Federation of Psycho-Oncology Societies’.