Abstract SY32-01: Beyond diagnosis: Survivorship research for people living with advanced and metastatic cancers

Abstract Targeted therapies, immunotherapy, and other advances in treatments and supportive care have revolutionized cancer care leading to a growing population of cancer survivors who live for many years with metastatic disease and have unique survivorship needs. People living with advanced cancer represent a distinct group whose needs remain understudied, especially compared with people diagnosed with early-stage disease. While the National Cancer Institute (NCI) has supported survivorship science for several decades, this has often been limited to those who are post-treatment and were treated with curative intent. The NCI identified survivorship needs for people living with advanced and metastatic cancer as a priority in 2021, with a specific focus on identifying unmet physical and psychosocial needs and care delivery challenges. A unique challenge facing patients living with advanced cancer is coping with the immense prognostic uncertainty and living well in the face of a life-limiting illness. Patients and caregivers often have substantial misperceptions about their prognosis and struggle with prognostic distress. Thus, it is critical for clinicians to understand patient needs and preferences for receiving prognostic information, even through great uncertainty about their disease. Furthermore, we need to integrate strategies to promote adaptive coping as patients learn to live with their uncertain prognosis. To this end, we share a review of the current landscape of advanced cancer survivorship research, the perspective of a survivor and caregiver, and a critical overview of prognostic understanding and coping with uncertainty for people living with advanced and metastatic cancer. Citation Format: Michelle Mollica. Beyond diagnosis: Survivorship research for people living with advanced and metastatic cancers [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2025; Part 2 (Late-Breaking, Clinical Trial, and Invited Abstracts); 2025 Apr 25-30; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2025;85(8_Suppl_2):Abstract nr SY32-01.