Digital solutions for tackling mental health in cancer patients and their families: The ALTHEA project

Despite advances in cancer treatment, the growing global cancer burden underscores the need for comprehensive and supportive care to address the needs of patients and their families. However, access to psycho-oncological support remains often limited across healthcare systems. This could be related to factors such as resource constraints and insufficient integration of psychological care into routine oncological pathways. Individual-level barriers also exist, including low awareness of available services, stigma, and heterogeneity in patients’ perceived needs and help-seeking attitudes. Nevertheless, psychological burden can significantly influence patients’ experience of the treatment pathway, influencing cognitive clarity, perceived self-efficacy, communication, risk perception, decision-making, and all areas of daily life. In this context, digital mental health solutions have emerged as promising tools to enhance accessibility, continuity of care, and personalisation of support. In this manuscript, we aim to describe the structure of the ALTHEA project (“tAckling menTal Health cancer patients and their families: digital solutions for bEtter cAre”), which focuses on the development of a novel web-based digital platform targeting cancer patients and their informal caregivers’ mental health across different stages of the care pathway. ALTHEA is distinguished by the presence of screening, classification into different support profiles, and tailored interventions within a single platform, as well as by its co-creation approach involving patients and stakeholders. In this line, the ALTHEA project represents a timely opportunity to integrate digital health solutions into psycho-oncology care, improving mental health outcomes, enhancing patient empowerment, and promoting a more holistic approach to cancer care.

Authors

Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
PLOS Digital Health
Published
2026-10-07
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pdig.0001675
Primary Topic
Digital Mental Health Interventions
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

Digital solutions for tackling mental health in cancer patients and their families: The ALTHEA project

Hannah Gsell, Giuseppe Curigliano, Laura Ciria‐Suarez, Elisabeth Andritsch et al.
PLOS Digital Health
Digital Mental Health Interventions
article

Digital solutions for tackling mental health in cancer patients and their families: The ALTHEA project

Hannah Gsell, Giuseppe Curigliano, Laura Ciria‐Suarez, Elisabeth Andritsch, Paola Zagami, Birutė Brasiūnienė, Denis Horgan, Lucija Gosak, Ida Minchella, Dario Monzani, van Kerrebroeck, Isabelle Scholl, Norbert Couespel, Norbert M. Graf, Elisabetta Munzone, Marie Lange, Cristian Ochoa, Chiara Bovolenta, Marta Pérez‐Campdepadrós, Ilaria Durosini, Marcel Meyerheim, Haridimos Kondylakis, Iva Kirac, Andreas Charalambous, Béata Juzyna, Francesca Magnoni, Manolis Tsiknakis, Clémentine Rialland, Saska Benedicic Tomat, Veronica Coppini, Margarita Tareyn, Maria Vittoria Ferrari, Claudio Lombardo, Delia Nicoara, Asia Grigis, Kostyantyn Kovalyov, Nicole Erickson, Luigi Grassi, Mieke Van Hemelrijck, Begonya Nafria Escalera, Fedro Alessandro Peccatori, Ines Vaz-Luis, Nataliia Dovganych, Gabriella Pravettoni, Karl Làvo
article en

Abstract

Despite advances in cancer treatment, the growing global cancer burden underscores the need for comprehensive and supportive care to address the needs of patients and their families. However, access to psycho-oncological support remains often limited across healthcare systems. This could be related to factors such as resource constraints and insufficient integration of psychological care into routine oncological pathways. Individual-level barriers also exist, including low awareness of available services, stigma, and heterogeneity in patients’ perceived needs and help-seeking attitudes. Nevertheless, psychological burden can significantly influence patients’ experience of the treatment pathway, influencing cognitive clarity, perceived self-efficacy, communication, risk perception, decision-making, and all areas of daily life. In this context, digital mental health solutions have emerged as promising tools to enhance accessibility, continuity of care, and personalisation of support. In this manuscript, we aim to describe the structure of the ALTHEA project (“tAckling menTal Health cancer patients and their families: digital solutions for bEtter cAre”), which focuses on the development of a novel web-based digital platform targeting cancer patients and their informal caregivers’ mental health across different stages of the care pathway. ALTHEA is distinguished by the presence of screening, classification into different support profiles, and tailored interventions within a single platform, as well as by its co-creation approach involving patients and stakeholders. In this line, the ALTHEA project represents a timely opportunity to integrate digital health solutions into psycho-oncology care, improving mental health outcomes, enhancing patient empowerment, and promoting a more holistic approach to cancer care.

PLOS Digital HealthVol. 5(10)
European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (NL), Hospital Sant Joan de Déu Barcelona (ES), University of Crete (GR), Inserm (FR), University of Turku (FI), Cyprus University of Technology (CY), Vilnius University (LT), King's College London (GB), University of Milan (IT), University of Ferrara (IT), Medical University of Graz (AT), European Association of Urology (NL), European CanCer Organisation (BE), European Society for Clinical Nutrition and Metabolism (LU), Institut Gustave Roussy (FR), Hellenic Mediterranean University (GR), Universitat Internacional de Catalunya (ES), Maastricht University (NL), University of Maribor (SI), Institut d'Investigació Biomédica de Bellvitge (ES), United Charitable (US), Institute of Oncology Prof. Dr. Ion Chiricuta (RO), Centre François Baclesse (LU), Institut Català d'Oncologia (ES), University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (DE), FORTH Institute of Computer Science (GR), Sisters of Charity Hospital (HR), European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (BE), Organisation of European Cancer Institutes (BE), UniCancer Group (FR), National Scientific Center "M.D. Strazhesko Institute of Cardiology" (UA), National Cancer Institute (LT), Vilnius University Hospital Santariskiu Klinikos (LT), The Patients Association (GB), Institut de Recerca Sant Joan de Déu, Fondation Gustave Roussy (FR), European Institute of Oncology (IT), Universitat de Barcelona (ES), Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas (GR), University of Palermo (IT), Saarland University (DE), Université de Caen Normandie (FR)
Openalex Percentile: Top 8%
Digital Mental Health Interventions
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.