Cancer survivorship

Cancer survivorship describes the experience of living with, through, and beyond cancer. It is unknown how many cancer survivors are trans or gender diverse, because cancer registries do not collect such data. LGBTQIA+ populations are described as an “invisible diversity” in cancer care. Cancer research and clinical practice are predominantly heterocentric and ciscentric, resulting in insufficient knowledge about the specific health care needs, outcomes, lived experiences, and effective interventions to improve outcomes for LGBTQIA+ populations. There is an emerging field of LGBTQ cancer survivorship research. However, this has focused on cisgender LGBQ women and men. Previous research on trans people and cancer has focused on epidemiology, etiology, and biomedical aspects of cancer treatment. There is a pressing need for research to examine the cancer survivorship experiences of the trans population, in order to inform practice and policy, as well as the development of culturally competent cancer information and care.