Female childhood cancer survivors and the impact of flank, abdominal or pelvic radiotherapy on live birth rates: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Funding

The study was funded by a Health Education England (HEE)/National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Masters by Research award. The funder of the study had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation, or writing of the manuscript. Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) is rare within a systematic review. Traditionally, research studies perform an analysis of secondary data sources to answer a research question, with the aims of the study being completely researcher driven. However, clinical academic researchers are now encouraged to prioritise the needs and views of patients within their research design, allowing for faster translational impact of their results into clinical practice (Gray 2017). This patient-driven, collaborative approach to research is also supported by the James Lind Alliance (James Lind Alliance 2021). The Alliance leads priority-setting partnerships for areas of need and works together with multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder groups to prioritise research questions of direct relevance to patients (James Lind Alliance 2021). Using a collaborative PPIE approach within research methodologies, including systematic reviews, helps to improve the applicability, relevance and justification of important research questions and is recommended for future studies of this kind.