STUDY PROTOCOL article
Front. Med.
Sec. Precision Medicine
Screening tools to assess Cancer-related Financial Toxicity: a scoping systematic review and thematic analysis protocol
1. Department of Pharmacy, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
2. Sichuan Cancer Hospital and Institute, Chengdu, China
3. The Second People's Hospital of Yibin City, Yibin, China
4. Chengdu Fifth People's Hospital, Chengdu, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Abstract
ABSTRACT Introduction: Financial toxicity, stemming from high cancer treatment costs, compromises adherence, escalates caregiver burden, and induces psychological distress, ultimately hindering patient outcomes and exacerbating health inequities. Despite the development of various assessment tools, a consensus on how to uniformly measure financial toxicity remains elusive. This study aims to systematically analyze the similarities and differences among existing global financial toxicity assessment tools, identify key themes, and grade the evidence, thereby providing a theoretical foundation for developing a financial toxicity assessment tool tailored to the Chinese context. Methods: This review will conduct a comprehensive search of databases, including The Cochrane Library, PubMed, Embase, Web of Science, CNKI, Wanfang, VIP, CBM, grey literature, and health websites from various countries, to identify all tools assessing financial toxicity in cancer patients and their families. The search will cover the period from January 1, 2012, to January 1, 2026. Two reviewers will independently assess the included literature. In cases of disagreement, a third reviewer will adjudicate. Basic characteristics to be described will include the publishing institution, year of publication, country of origin, and applicable drug categories of the assessment tools. Key elements to be extracted and described will focus on dimensions of financial toxicity assessment, sources/evidence grading, and methodological processes, including methods and techniques. Subsequently, the thematic analysis method was adopted to integrate the evidence, extract key themes, and focus on the applicability of existing tools in the Chinese context. The integrated evidence will be evaluated using the GRADE-CERQual evidence quality assessment system to determine the credibility of the evidence for the applicability of existing tools. Ethics and dissemination: This study does not involve human or animal subjects, and ethical approval is not required. The results will be disseminated at various presentations and feedback sessions, in conference abstracts and manuscripts that will be submitted to peer-reviewed journals. PROSPERO registration number: CRD42024546186
Summary
Keywords
Cancer, Financial toxicity, protocol, Systematic review, Thematic analysis
Received
12 October 2025
Accepted
17 February 2026
Copyright
© 2026 Li, Luo, Long, Dongni and Jiang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Huan Li
Disclaimer
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.