ArticlePalliative & supportive care2025
Expressive writing interventions in patients with cancer: A scoping literature review.
Article in Palliative & supportive care, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Navigating rural challenges and promoting posttraumatic growth via expressive writing: a qualitative study among rural breast cancer survivors.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2026Article
- Navigating rural challenges and promoting posttraumatic growth via expressive writing: A qualitative study among rural breast cancer survivors.Research square · 2026Article
- Psychological distress, body image, and nutritional status during hospitalization for gynecological cancer surgery: a prospective observational study.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2025Observational
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundExpressive writing interventions (EWIs) are associated with important psychological and physical outcomes in patients with cancer. However, EWIs have not been widely integrated into routine psychosocial care of cancer populations. A review of the current literature on EWIs' impact on the cancer patient experience, including qualitative analyses of patient perspectives, will increase our understanding of barriers and facilitators to adoption in clinical settings.
objectivesTo bridge existing gaps in the literature by examining quantitative and qualitative studies on EWIs for patients with cancer. To present recent data examining the benefits of EWI's for patients with cancer.To provide strategies for clinicians engaging in EWI's for their patients.
methodsInformed by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines, we completed a scoping review of relevant quantitative and qualitative articles published from 2015 to 2025 to assess the impact of EWIs on health-related outcomes (e.g., physical symptoms and quality of life [QOL]) as well as approaches to improve their use in patients with cancer.
resultsOf the 28 studies with 3527 patients that we analyzed, 24 were quantitative and 4 were qualitative. Most studies were conducted in the USA (42.8%) or China (28.6%) and included patients with breast cancer (71.4%) or only included women (71.4%). Of the patients in the studies, 46.8% identified as White, 42.8% as Asian, 5.5% as Black, and 4.5% as Latino. Twenty-one of the quantitative studies found that EWIs were positively associated with cancer patients' QOL and/or physical health outcomes. Of the 4 qualitative studies, themes of narrative reconstruction, cultural disclosure norms, and intervention delivery format emerged. The characteristics of EWI methods can be tailored to maximize therapeutic benefits through cultural adaptation, timing, and privacy. SIGNIFICANCE OF
resultsDespite promising associations between EWIs and health-related outcomes in patients with cancer, EWIs for cancer populations are heterogeneous and randomized clinical trials are limited. Larger trials that establish the efficacy of EWIs in diverse cancer populations are warranted.
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