Shaping the Future Research Agenda of Cancer Nursing in Italy: Insights and Strategic Directions

This report analyzes the evolution of cancer nursing research in Italy, focusing on 207 publications from nursing journals indexed in MEDLINE. Using Latent Dirichlet Allocation, we identified four primary research topics from the included abstracts: Patient-Centered Care, Clinical Nursing Practice, Healthcare Institutions and Systems, and Research and Data Analysis. The temporal trends reveal a shift from foundational studies on healthcare systems in the late 1990s to more recent emphases on patient-centered care and clinical practice. This progression underscores the growing importance of personalized healthcare approaches. Our findings highlight the need for continued investment in innovative nursing interventions and advanced technologies, such as telehealth, to enhance patient outcomes. Research priorities need to investigate how to tailor nursing interventions to individual patient characteristics, such as their cultural background, lifestyle, and personal values, in the area of clinical nursing practice, which is less represented in the literature thus far. The limited publications regarding clinical nursing practice in the Italian context might reflect the need to strengthen cancer nursing as a specialization in Italy to trigger research and practice that address unmet patient needs. The current analysis provides a foundation for future comprehensive studies and strategic development of a research agenda for cancer nursing research in Italy, led by the Italian Association of Cancer Nursing.