Introduction In many low-income and lower-middle-income countries (LMICs), palliative care services are limited and much of the care for adults with advanced cancer is provided by family caregivers. This review aims to explore the family caregiver experience in providing palliative care to adult patients with cancer in LMICs. Methods and analysis This qualitative systematic review will be conducted using a comprehensive search strategy on PubMed (MEDLINE), Embase, CINAHL and PsycINFO without language or date restrictions. The COnnecting REpositories (CORE) database of the Open University will be searched for grey literature. Review questions will follow the PICo framework (Population, Phenomena of Interest and Context). Qualitative or mixed-method studies on the experience of family caregivers of adult patients with cancer (above 18 years) receiving palliative care in LMICs will be included. Study quality will be assessed using the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) critical appraisal tools. Findings will be synthesised using meta-aggregation or with a narrative synthesis if pooling is not feasible. The review process will follow the JBI methodology for systematic reviews of qualitative evidence and will be reported according to the ENhancing Transparency in REporting the synthesis of Qualitative research (ENTREQ) framework. Ethics and dissemination No ethical approval is required as the study involves secondary data analysis of published literature. Ethical principles of accurate reporting and transparency will be upheld. Findings will be published in peer-reviewed open-access journals and presented at academic conferences. Recommendations will be shared with policymakers and healthcare organisations responsible for the provision of palliative care for patients with cancer in LMICs. PROSPERO registration number CRD420251010556.
Karunarathna et al. (Fri,) studied this question.
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