This scoping review, prepared following PRISMA guidance, aimed to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on breast cancer survivors (BCS). The review focused on three primary areas: changes in survivors' quality of life (QoL), effects on follow-up care and survivorship services, and interventions implemented to address supportive care needs during the pandemic. The source material summarizes the review objectives but the extract available is limited to the abstract and bibliographic details.
The authors searched Embase, MEDLINE, CINAHL, and Web of Science for studies published from January 2020 through February 2025. Inclusion was restricted to primary studies published in English that specifically commented on the impact of COVID-19 on the stated outcomes (QoL, follow-up care, and supportive interventions). The review was conducted and reported according to PRISMA methodology. Further details on screening processes, data extraction methods, quality appraisal, and specific inclusion/exclusion criteria beyond language and outcome focus were not available in the provided source excerpt.
A total of 40 studies met inclusion criteria for the review. The most commonly reported study designs were cross-sectional studies (n = 14), prospective cohort studies (n = 10), and qualitative studies (n = 7). The review also included four randomized controlled trials. The source lists these design counts but does not provide the full breakdown of study populations, geographic distribution, sample sizes, or timeframes within the abstract excerpt available.
Thirty-five of the included studies examined the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on quality of life among breast cancer survivors. Of these, twenty studies reported worsened psychological well‑being, with documented increases in stress, anxiety, depressive symptoms, and feelings of loneliness. The abstract notes these broad findings but does not present quantitative effect sizes, instruments used to measure QoL or mental health outcomes, or the heterogeneity of results across study settings in the provided extract.
The abstract indicates that identified stressors contributing to poorer psychological outcomes included fear of COVID-19 exposure during in-person care. The text available is truncated at this point; additional specific stressors, contextual contributors (for example, treatment delays, reduced social support, or financial concerns), and how these stressors were measured or described in the included studies are not reported in the excerpt.
Assessing changes to follow-up care and survivorship service delivery was an explicit aim of the scoping review. The abstract confirms this focus but the provided content does not include detailed findings on how follow-up schedules, surveillance imaging, clinic visits, telehealth adoption, or multidisciplinary survivorship services were affected. The source excerpt does not report specific service changes, extent of service disruption, or geographic patterns.
The review sought to identify interventions implemented during the pandemic to meet BCS supportive care needs. While interventions were an outcome of interest, the abstract extract does not list the specific types of interventions evaluated, the settings in which they were tested, or their reported effectiveness. Any randomized controlled trials included may have addressed interventions, but details on trial content, outcomes, or conclusions are not available in the truncated source material.
The abstract provides key high‑level results but the available excerpt is truncated and omits many specifics necessary for full critical appraisal. Missing details include quantitative estimates of effect, measurement instruments, participant characteristics, geographic distribution of studies, specifics of follow-up care disruptions, and descriptions or outcomes of supportive interventions. Where the source text is incomplete, this rewritten summary explicitly notes absent information rather than inferring unreported findings.
From the abstracted material, the review concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic had measurable adverse effects on quality of life and psychological well‑being for many breast cancer survivors, with increases in stress, anxiety, depression, and loneliness reported in multiple studies. The review also intended to synthesize impacts on follow-up care and interventions to address supportive care needs, but specific conclusions and practice recommendations on those domains are not included in the available excerpt. For clinicians and survivorship program planners, the available findings underscore the importance of assessing and addressing mental health and social support needs among BCS during periods of healthcare disruption. Detailed guidance, intervention efficacy data, and operational recommendations would require consulting the full article text.
Note: This rewrite is restricted to facts reported in the provided PubMed abstract excerpt. Where the abstract was truncated or essential data were not reported in the excerpt, those details are stated as not reported rather than being inferred or invented.