Metaverse-Related Technologies for Improving Psychosocial Care in Cancer Patients

Dear Colleagues, 

Among eHealth strategies, a promising resource for psychotherapy and patients’ education, is represented by Metaverse-related technologies, including avatars and digital twins. Avatars have been used as digital representation of patients that interact with the professionals and/or peers, in a virtual environment. They could be customized by users including physical appearance and aspects of their personality.  The embodiment level has been studied as a remarkable characteristic which could produce a high level of “being present” in patients.  Avatars, as digital representations of oneself, which are used in digital environments, have been showed as powerful educational tools, which allow cancer patients to better understand side effects, while providing them educational self-manage strategies and a social interaction setting to get in touch with other patients.  Metaverse-related technologies as Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality, represent an innovative tool in which Avatars could be used to benefit cancer patients.

As new digital tools, Metaverse-related technologies include several advantage and disadvantages, regarding their application to improve psychosocial care in cancer patients, specially focused on patient´s quality of live, well-being level and coping strategies. However, based on recent studies, this technology represents a promising instrument to teach cancer patients how to better manage several side effects, specially from a psychosocial perspective. The strengths and weakness of Metaverse-related techniques should be deeper studied, to determine those cancer patients who could be benefited from their use, as well as to stablish affordable protocols to standardize their applications in oncological settings.

We are pleased to invite you to contribute with your valuable research in this area, to increase the understanding of how Metaverse related technologies could be beneficial for improving psychosocial care in cancer patients.

This Special Issue aims to bring together researchers to report their latest research and reviews, focused on determine main implications of applying Metaverse related technologies to improve psychosocial care in cancer patients.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Identity and embodiment in Metaverse-related technologies for cancer patients.
• Presence and social presence in the Metaverse-related technologies for cancer patients.
• Metaverse-related technologies to improve psychosocial care for cancer patients.
• Cancer patient´s learning experiences after using Metaverse-related technologies.
• Patient´s improvement in side effects self-management, as chronic pain, or lymphedema symptoms, through educational strategies developed by Metaverse-related technologies.
• Comparison of traditional psycho-social care with innovative strategies based on Metaverse-related technologies, for psychosocial adjustment in cancer patients (quality of life, well-being, coping strategies, social interaction, patient empowerment, or patient education).
• Cancer patient´s satisfaction level after using Metaverse-related technologies.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Dr. Esther Rincon
Dr. Octavio Rivera
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Cancers is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• cancer care
• psychosocial care
• metaverse
• virtual reality
• augmented reality
• mixed reality
• avatar
• embodiment
• sense of being present
• psycho-oncology