The effect of social care nurses on health related quality of life in patients with advanced cancer: A non-randomized, multicenter, controlled trial

recurrence, the further course of the disease, confrontation with death, physical changes, treatment side effects, sexuality, partnership and family problems, workplace problems, and financial security [7].Thus, psycho-oncological and supportive care interventions are an important complement to medical treatments that can improve patients' quality of life [8,9].QoL is a multidimensional concept that includes physical, emotional, social, and functional well-being [10].It is crucial to include the patient's voice on their QoL not only in clinical decision-making but also in the development of therapies and regulatory decision-making [11,12].As curatively-treatments in advanced stages of cancer are no longer indicated, improving quality of life becomes a central therapeutic goal [13].Previous psycho-oncological and supportive care offerings focusing on QoL encompassed a variety of forms, often combined with navigational support.Patient navigation involve roles and activities designed to help cancer patients overcome healthcare barriers and access high-quality health and psychosocial care.They provide support to organize tailored assistance to meet the specific needs of patients and their caregivers, addressing identified obstacles and personalized care objectives to ensure the timely and optimal use of available services within the cancer care continuum [14,15].Interventions range from continuous contact persons [16,17] and organized (online) peer support [18,19], to counselling cross-sectoral nurse navigators who aim to coordinate care between ambulatory and inpatient care) [20,21] to supportive care at home [17] and nurse-led outpatient "enhanced supportive care" [22].Due to their early contact with patients and their pre-existing qualifications, inpatient nursing staff seem to be well suited to closely monitor the health situation of patients by means of standardized assessment tools and to offer needs-oriented support services [20,[23][24][25][26]. Changes in quality of life could thus be timely identified and serve as an indicator of supportive care needs that require further clinical attention [27].