Governance in/of Cancer Care and Stewardship in Cancer Control: Creation of Definitions

Abstract

In the literature in the field of cancer care, especially in the literature concerning national cancer control programmes, the terms governance and stewardship in/of cancer care are used, but usually not explained or defined. Therefore, we planned a systematic literature review in order to find the definitions of the terms governance and stewardship in/of cancer care. It was planned to create new definitions of the mentioned terms in case of unsuccessful finds. A literature review using PubMed, Google and MeSH as well as an opportunistic search for extra articles and chapters from books and grey literature was performed. Most of the found and analysed articles did not give exact explanation of the terms governance/stewardship in/of cancer care or they cited older articles (published before the year 2000) where the terms are used mostly in the field of clinical governance or in the completely other fileds, mostly banking, economy, religion or spirituality. Therefore, it was decided in the working group of experts from different European countries collaborating within in the work package Governance of integrated and comprehensive cancer care in the frame of the Innovative Partnership for the Action Against Cancer Joint Action project on cancer to create new definitions which we are presenting for the first time. The new definitions will facilitate the understanding of the leadership tasks in the area of cancer care and cancer control and will be particularly useful in the field of cancer programmes.