Psychosocial interventions for families with minor children affected by parental cancer: An umbrella review

Clinical Snapshot

Key Findings

• P Value: Not reported at the umbrella review level

• Effect Size: Not quantified; narrative synthesis only — no pooled effect sizes reported due to substantial clinical and methodological heterogeneity across the eight included systematic reviews

• Primary Outcome: Psychosocial interventions for families with minor children affected by parental cancer were associated with preliminary beneficial outcomes across child, parent, and family domains, including improved children's understanding of parental illness, enhanced family communication and functioning, strengthened parenting skills, and promoted psychological well-being

• Nnt Or Sensitivity: Not calculable from the available data; the narrative synthesis does not provide sufficient quantitative information to derive NNT, sensitivity, specificity, or hazard ratio estimates

• Confidence Interval: Not applicable — no meta-analytic pooling was conducted

Clinical Application

Feasibility of implementation varies considerably across the 46 identified interventions, which differ in modality (individual, group, family-based), setting (clinical, community, online), intensity, and target (child, parent, or family unit). The review does not provide sufficient detail to assess implementation feasibility for specific clinical contexts. Workforce requirements (psychologists, social workers, oncology nurses) and resource implications are not addressed. The heterogeneity of intervention characteristics limits the ability to recommend a specific programme. In Australia, psycho-oncology support services are available through cancer centres, Cancer Council Australia, and community-based organisations, but access is variable across metropolitan and regional settings. The RACGP does not currently have specific guidelines for managing the psychosocial needs of children of cancer patients, though the 2020 RACGP Standards for General Practices emphasise whole-family care. No specific PBS-listed pharmacological interventions are relevant to this review. The TGA does not regulate psychosocial interventions. Cancer Australia's National Cancer Control Indicators and the National Cancer Nursing Education Project (EdCaN) provide frameworks for supportive care, within which findings from this review could inform service development. The review's conclusions align with the Cancer Australia priority of improving psychosocial support for cancer-affected families, but the tentative nature of the evidence means direct policy translation requires caution. Telehealth-delivered psychosocial interventions, increasingly relevant in the Australian context post-COVID-19, are not specifically addressed. Families with children and adolescents under 18 years of age where a parent has received a cancer diagnosis, across cancer types and disease stages. Interventions identified span individual child, parent, and whole-family modalities. Applicability is broadest for families in active treatment phases, though the review does not systematically stratify by disease stage or cancer type.

Abstract

PURPOSE: Research on psychosocial interventions for families with minor children affected by parental cancer has expanded over recent decades; however, the evidence remains fragmented across multiple systematic reviews. This umbrella review aims to gather and synthesize the existing systematic reviews, with a particular focus on intervention characteristics, implementation, effectiveness, methodological limitations, and implications for future research and clinical practice. METHODS: A comprehensive search of CINAHL, MEDLINE, PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, PsycINFO, PsycArticles, Epistemonikos, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews was conducted in September 2025, including gray literature. Eligible reviews were published between 1990 and 2025 in English, Portuguese, or Spanish and had full-text availability. Methodological quality was assessed using AMSTAR-2. The review was registered in PROSPERO (ID 1139397). RESULTS: Eight systematic reviews met inclusion criteria and were synthesized narratively due to substantial clinical and methodological heterogeneity. Across these reviews, 46 distinct psychosocial interventions were identified. Overall, interventions were associated with preliminary beneficial outcomes for children, adolescents, parents, and families, particularly in improving children's understanding of parental illness, enhancing family communication and functioning, strengthening parenting skills, and promoting psychological well-being. However, confidence in these findings was limited by the generally low methodological quality of the included reviews and the high overlap of primary studies. CONCLUSIONS: Current evidence suggests that psychosocial interventions may support families with minor children affected by parental cancer, but conclusions remain tentative due to methodological limitations. There is a clear need for the development and rigorous evaluation of developmentally and disease-stage-sensitive interventions, supported by high-quality research and institutional collaboration. Strengthening the evidence base in this area is essential to inform clinical practice, guide supportive care services, and support policy development in psycho-oncology.

References

1. 1.Santos, S., Ribeiro, R., & Barbosa, M. (2026). Psychosocial interventions for families with minor children affected by parental cancer: An umbrella review. Supportive Care in Cancer: Official Journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12904-022-01007-1