Background: In 2006 a Swedish network was established for PhDs with backgrounds in nursing and other health care sciences active in cancer care research. One of the main aims of the multiprofessional network is to initiate multicentre studies in this field. The issue of where the front line in cancer caring sciences is has been raised within the network as well as from funding agencies. One step towards identifying the front line is to seek opinions about research priorities among health care professionals. Since 1981 the Oncology Nursing Society (ONS) in USA, has conducted surveys about research priorities among cancer nurses. These studies have been of guidance for allocating resources to areas in need of more research. The aim of this study was to investigate research priorities for cancer caring sciences from Swedish health care professionals’ point of view.

Materials and method: A convenience sample of 19 PhD-prepared professionals in cancer caring sciences and 40 nurses working in cancer care participated. A questionnaire consisting of 115 potential research topics from the ONS study was translated into Swedish. The Swedish version is composed of a verbal category scale with four response alternatives to grade the importance of each topic. The topics can be divided into seven areas; cancer symptom management, behavioural/psychosocial aspects, health services, cancer continuum of care, health promotion/prevention, special populations and communication/decision making.

Results: The top 10 topics as rated by the respondents were evidence-based practice, palliative care, curative treatment/care, caregiver role, children/adolescents, quality of life, prevention of cancer, fatigue and patient outcome of cancer care. The two most important areas were cancer continuum of care and communication/decision making whereas the least important area was special cancer populations. The PhD-group rated significantly nursing workforce issues (p<0.01) less important and functional status changes (p<0.05) and rehabilitation (p<0.05) more important than did the nurses. The top 20 research priorities in the Swedish sample included 13 of the top 20 topics in the ONS study.

Conclusion: This study is a first step towards exploring the front line in oncology caring sciences by establishing research priorities as viewed by researchers and cancer nurses. The next challenge will be to ask patients and their families about their opinions of research priorities in cancer care.