Time flies, and we have passed through 2021. Last year has been challenging for us due to the continued worldwide spread of Covid-19 variants that have affected the health and wellbeing of many, including patients with cancer. This critical situation has highlighted the significant role of nurses and other healthcare professionals in the fight against cancer. Amid the heroism of our frontline oncology nurses, efforts to generate and disseminate knowledge are also crucial to advance clinical practice and support our oncology nurses in providing high-quality, science-based care. I would like to take this opportunity to show my appreciation to all of the editorial board members, our 121 reviewers and the managing editorial team for their dedication to the journal during 2021. Without you, the Asia-Pacific Journal of Oncology Nursing (APJON) could not fulfil its role in paving the way for the future of oncology nursing in the Asia Pacific region.
I am pleased to announce the schedule of special topic issues as shown in the table. You are welcome to submit an article related to these four topics. Submissions can take the form of an original article, review, case report, editorial or letter to the editor.
Table. Schedule of special topic issues in 2022
| Topics | Submission Deadline | Publication Date |
|---|---|---|
| Nursing care for enhanced recovery after surgery | 31 January 2022 | 30 June 2022 |
| Reducing the global cancer burden via cancer prevention and early detection | 31 August 2022 | 28 February 2023 |
| Telehealth/artificial intelligence in cancer care | 31 October 2022 | 31 March 2023 |
| Social inequity and cancer | 31 December 2022 | 31 May 2023 |
I am very pleased to inform you that Prof. Can Gu, Prof. Yan Hu, Dr. Bente Thoft Jensen, Dr. Cannas Kwok and Prof. Qian Lu have joined us as editorial board members. Their brief biographies are provided below:
Gu Can, PhD, RN, MPhil. Prof. Can Gu received her undergraduate and Master's degrees in Nursing from Central South University, and her PhD in Nursing from The Chinese University of Hong Kong. She completed a 1.5-year postdoctoral training fellowship at Yale School of Nursing. Prof. Gu is a Professor of Nursing and Vice Director of the Department of Clinical Nursing at Xiangya School of Nursing, Central South University. In September 2020, she was dispatched by the Organisation Department of the CPC Central Committee to aid Xinjiang. She is currently the Associate Dean of the Nursing School of Xinjiang Medical University, where she is committed to nurturing more competent and caring nurses to support the development of nursing and health care in western China. As the principal investigator on several university-funded and national grants, she is interested in the practice of primary and secondary prevention of cervical cancer in the Chinese cultural context and psychosocial interventions for cancer survivor groups, including children with cancer.
Yan Hu, PhD, RN, FAAN. Prof. Yan Hu is Dean of the School of Nursing of Fudan University and Director of the Fudan University Centre of Evidence-Based Nursing, a Collaborating Centre of the Joanna Briggs Institute. She is also Vice Executive Director of the Chinese Higher Nursing Education Committee and Vice Chair of the Shanghai Nursing Association Board. She serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Advanced Nursing, the International Journal of Nursing Practice and other peer-reviewed nursing journals. Her current research focuses are supportive care for and quality of life of breast cancer survivors and symptom management for HIV/AIDS patients using the evidence-based nursing approach. Her research is funded by various competitive grants including the National Natural Science Foundation of China, China Medical Board and Shanghai Health Bureau, resulting in over 200 publications in peer-reviewed International or Chinese core nursing journals over the past five years. Currently, Prof. Hu and her research team are involving in various global health projects, such as developing and implementing clinical practice guidelines for caring patients with HIV/AIDS.
Bente Thoft Jensen, PhD, RN, FAAN. Dr. Bente Thoft Jensen is an Associate Professor in the Department of Urology of Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark. She has been involved in urology for more than 25 years as a trained nurse and obtained a Master's degree in Public Health and a PhD in clinical medicine, focusing on multimodal prehabilitation and rehabilitation for major uro-oncology surgery, with specific emphases on risk reduction, patient-reported outcome measurement, patient involvement and supportive care needs. Dr. Jansen has been involved in international urological nursing for over 20 years and chaired the European Association of Urology Nurses (EAUN) for 7 years. She is a founder of the European School of Urology Nursing and currently serves as a member of the Guideline Group in the EAUN. She is also Chair of the European SIG Bladder Cancer Group, the EAU Patient Education Programme, the National Danish Board of Health (cancer group) and the Danish Nursing Research Council. Internationally, she has completed several research projects with colleagues around the world and recently undertook a one-year surgical fellowship at the Department of Urology at the Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Center & MSK Research Laboratory in New York, with a specific focus on implementing multidisciplinary pathways in uro-oncology.
Cannas Kwok, PhD, RN. Dr. Cannas Kwok is currently Director of the Academic Programme (Postgraduate) of the School of Nursing and Midwifery of Western Sydney University. Dr. Kwok has established a solid research track record in cancer screening behaviour among culturally and linguistically diverse groups in Australia and has published numerous articles in international peer-reviewed journals. As a recognised leader in the field, she has been invited to join the advisory group for a number of breast cancer screening promotion programmes in Australia. Dr. Kwok's strong track record in breast cancer screening has expanded into an international role, working closely with international scholars in Vietnam, China, Hong Kong and Korea to compare the breast cancer screening behaviour of immigrant women and their counterparts in their respective countries. This work has contributed significantly to the literature and provided important insights into designing culturally sensitive breast cancer screening programmes.
Qian Lu, PhD, RN, RD, FAAN. Prof. Qian Lu is a Professor at Peking University's School of Nursing. She obtained her Bachelor's degree in Nursing from Shanghai Medical University in 1990 and a Master's degree in Nursing from Beijing Medical University in 1998. In 2009, she completed her PhD in Nutrition and Food Hygiene at Peking University's School of Public Health. She has performed a series of studies in oncology nursing and clinical nutrition, focusing on symptom management and nutritional risk screening. She also developed symptom assessment instruments for cancer patients during treatment, such as a breast cancer symptom scale for patients undergoing neoadjuvant chemotherapy and Chinese versions of the breast cancer-related lymphedema symptoms experience index and the breast cancer lymphedema screening telephone questionnaire. She further completed a series of studies of the relationship between nutrition impact symptoms and the nutritional status of head and neck cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy.
The list of Editorial Board members is now available on the journal webpage at https://www.journals.elsevier.com/asia-pacific-journal-of-oncology-nursing/editorial-board.
Please welcome Prof. Gu, Prof. Hu, Dr. Jensen, Dr. Kwok, Prof. Lu to the board. I look forward to working with all of them.
While five new members have joined the editorial board, Ms. Esther Green, Ms. Qi Wang and Prof. Myungsun Yi have retired and stepped down from the post. I would like to express my gratitude for everything they have contributed to APJON. They will be missed but never be forgotten. Best wishes on their new adventure!
Finally, I wish you a joyful, fruitful and healthy 2022.