Establishing a research consortium in psychosocial oncology and formulating a collective research agenda: A Dutch example

The field of psychosocial oncology faces many challenges, including the increasing number of cancer survivors in need of psychosocial support, alarming health disparities, and growing health care shortages. In 2024, Dutch psychosocial oncology researchers established the Psychosocial Oncology research COnsortium Netherlands (POCON) to better address these challenges together. In this letter, we describe the strategies we used to successfully launch POCON. After writing a mission statement, we developed a collective psychosocial oncology research agenda by (1) distributing a survey among Dutch senior researchers to determine priority themes for collaboration, (2) visualizing the current Dutch landscape of psychosocial oncology research by modeling a network of keywords based on recent publications in the field, and (3) comparing the identified priority themes and keyword network with more general cancer agendas in the Netherlands. Three overarching themes that were featured throughout these general agendas aligned with the identified priority themes but are currently underrepresented in psychosocial oncology research, as shown by the keyword network: “equity in cancer,” “implementation of innovations,” and “personalized care.” Based on these themes, we established three POCON committees. In addition, we established a fourth committee “Data Inventory” to further facilitate collaboration. Each committee is tasked with developing action plans to strengthen collaborative research efforts. Strategies that proved helpful throughout this process included prioritizing collaboration over competition, keeping up the momentum, and adopting a hands-on approach. By joining efforts and strengthening both national and international research collaborations, we strive to optimize psychosocial care for patients with cancer and their families.