Effectiveness of Nurse-Led Case Management in Cancer Care: Systematic Review

Cancer survivors need accountable, patient-centered and lifelong care. Case management has been shown effective at providing quality care and at reducing both hospital access and health care costs. However, how effective case management in cancer care is to date unclear. This systematic review examines recent evidence of the effectiveness of nurse-led case management in adults with cancer. The Cochrane processes and PRISMA statements guided this systematic review. The methodological risk of bias was assessed. From four electronic databases, nine experimental studies published from 2008 to 2017 were retrieved. Synthesized results show positive case management effectively improved patients’ quality of life and significantly reduced hospital readmission rates. However, there were mixed results of health care costs and other hospital access outcomes. There is some evidence that nurse-led case management is effective in cancer care. Further research applying rigorous design to large populations of cancer patients is recommended.