Table 3 Research priorities

Anticancer treatment

Studies which explore how decisions to use UEC (or not) might differ for people treated with curative intent and comparative studies of help-seeking by people receiving different anticancer treatments

Understudied populations

Studies of people with complications of advanced cancer known to often require UEC (e.g. metastatic spinal cord compression), people with haematological cancers, and people with cancer and multimorbidity

Roles of social networks

Studies that explore the roles undertaken by informal caregivers when navigating UEC and how help-seeking might differ for those living alone or with fragile social networks

System-level help-seeking

Studies which explore how people make sense of UEC systems and how the availability, accessibility, and acceptability of (differently organised) specialist and non-specialist services might influence help-seeking

Contingency planning

Studies of how people prepare for complications of cancer and its treatment (including fine-grained understanding of how people use information about UEC) and how this might influence service use