Abstract

Introduction: The Covid-19 pandemic has caused considerable disruption to cancer care and may have exacerbated existing challenges that cancer survivors from rural areas already face. This has created a pressing need for a rapid evidence synthesis of current impacts so that interventions, support and resources can be tailored to the needs of rural cancer survivors as they continue to deal with the consequences of the pandemic.

This rapid systematic review aims to identify peer-reviewed evidence relating to cancer survivors who resided in rural areas during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Methods and analysis: Keyword searches will be performed in EBSCOHost (incl. MEDLINE, CINAHL and PsycINFO), Scopus and Web of Science. Additional searching will be conducted in Google Scholar. The review includes peer-reviewed studies published in the English language that report primary data (quantitative and qualitative) on the experiences of cancer survivors who resided in rural areas during the pandemic. The results from the included studies will be synthesised narratively.

Discussion: This rapid review is being conducted with a view to providing deeper insight into the experiences of rural cancer survivors so that health professionals, researchers, policy makers, and people affected by cancer can be better supported in line with the needs and challenges that they face as a result of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Ethics and dissemination: This is a desk based rapid systematic review of the academic literature, therefore approval via an ethics committee is not warranted. All studies that will be included in the review will need to have gained the appropriate ethical approvals to merit inclusion in the review. The findings from this rapid review will be presented at appropriate conferences and published in a peer reviewed scientific journal.

Systematic review registration: The protocol was registered on the Open Science Framework [osf.io/2fjgc].