A Systematic Review of the Impact of Cancer Survivorship Interventions With Asian American Cancer Survivors

As the number of Asian cancer survivors continues to increase, there is a growing need for interventions to address their physiological and psychosocial needs. The aim of our systematic review was to assess the types and the impact of psychosocial or behavioral interventions for cancer survivorship among Asian Americans and Asian immigrants globally. The review included 18 articles reporting data from eight interventions, of which five were randomized controlled trials and three were one-group design interventions. All interventions were conducted with Asian Americans and fell into three categories: (a) expressive writing interventions that facilitated individual cognitive and emotional processing, (b) educational and social support interventions, and (c) healthy lifestyle interventions. Expressive writing studies that involved writing tasks facilitating emotional and stress disclosure and cognitive reappraisal were most beneficial for Chinese American survivors, and both in-person and longer virtual educational and social support interventions yielded improvements for survivors. The healthy lifestyle intervention was more beneficial for the mental health than the physical health of survivors. The small number of interventions in the United States and the lack of interventions with Asian immigrants outside of the United States highlights the need for more survivorship interventions for Asian cancer survivors. Successful cultural adaptation of cancer survivorship interventions often required multiple studies and extensive time and resources. The early success of culturally adapted interventions shows the path forward in developing effective survivorship interventions for Asian Americans and for testing and disseminating interventions among various cancer types and Asian subgroups in future research. What is the public significance of this article? Our review found that, with careful cultural adaptation, the expressive writing and education and social support interventions had positive outcomes in addressing the needs of Asian American cancer survivors. Our findings show that cultural adaptation of survivorship interventions for Asian Americans has been fruitful, and future efforts can build on these successes by continuing to culturally adapt interventions at deeper levels and developing tailored strategies for disseminating and implementing interventions.