From Silence to Shared Agency: A Longitudinal Meta-Ethnography of Children’s, Families’ and Clinicians’ Experiences of Childhood Cancer Care

Aim: To synthesise qualitative studies exploring how children, their families and clinicians experience childhood cancer care over time, with a particular focus on how agency is constructed through changing information practices, emotional responses to uncertainty and evolving care work. Design: This review was conducted using a meta-ethnography following the seven stages of Noblit and Hare. Methods: Qualitative and mixed-methods studies with a qualitative component were included if they addressed longitudinal or process-oriented experiences of childhood cancer care. Study quality was appraised using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme checklist, and confidence in the review findings was assessed using the GRADE-CERQual framework. Data Sources: Five electronic databases (PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, PsycINFO and Scopus) were searched from inception to [12/2025]. Reference lists of included articles were hand-searched to identify additional studies. Results: A total of [XXXX] records were screened, and nine studies met the inclusion criteria. Through reciprocal translation and line-of-argument synthesis, three interrelated processes were identified that characterise childhood cancer care as a temporal learning process: …