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. 2025 Jun:7:100519.
doi: 10.1016/j.ssmqr.2024.100519. Epub 2024 Dec 19.

"I'm learning to live after cancer and its treatment": Exploring the challenges of cancer survivorship in Arkansas

Ramey Moore  1 , Emily Hallgren  1 , Shani Worrell  2 , Anna Wahls  2 , Sarah K Council  2 , Deanne L King  3 , Rajalakshmi Cheerla  4 , Donya Watson  4   5 , Jacquelene Childs  4 , Martha Garrett-Shaver  4   5 , Pearl A McElfish  1
Affiliations

"I'm learning to live after cancer and its treatment": Exploring the challenges of cancer survivorship in Arkansas

Ramey Moore et al. SSM Qual Res Health. 2025 Jun.

Abstract

Purpose: This study explores challenges faced by a large, diverse sample of cancer survivors who received care in the rural state of Arkansas to provide holistic insight into the quality of survivorship.

Methods: We used a theory-driven exploratory descriptive design to explore cancer survivors' (n = 519) biggest cancer-related challenges.

Results: Cancer survivors' challenges were organized using a priori domains from the Quality of Survival framework: quality of life, survival, managing the side effects, and managing the economic impact. Nearly half (48.4%) of all responses identified challenges related to quality of life, and 39.7% of all responses focused on the challenges of managing the side effects of cancer and its treatment. Managing the economic impact (6.9%) and survival (4.9%) were also identified as challenges by survivors.

Conclusions: Survivors faced a range of challenges from cancer and its treatment. Survivors primarily faced psychosocial challenges, issues with ongoing care, and physical and/or functional sequelae. Managing the economic impact and financial toxicity of cancer treatment and surviving cancer and its treatment were less frequently identified among the challenges faced by survivors.

Implications for cancer survivors: Our analysis highlights the importance of understanding the psychosocial and physical sequelae of cancer and its treatment. Our research helps fill significant gaps in the literature, improving the understanding of rural cancer survivorship. Nuanced understanding of survivors' experiences, using theory-driven qualitative and mixed-methods approaches, will continue to be critical for developing effective, evidence-based practices to meet the needs of survivors.

Keywords: Physical functioning; Psychosocial; Quality of life; Rural; Survivorship; Theory-driven qualitative research.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Study Sample Flowchart EMR = electronic medical record.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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