2026 Trends
Initiative Chair: Lisa Starr, Consultant for Wynne Business, United States
Initiative Vice-Chair: Wilfried Dreckmann, Founding Director of Spa Project, Germany
Cancer and its prevention are no longer only about medical treatment. They are about thriving. These five trends highlight how health education in lifestyle medicine, combined with health and wellness coaching and community engagement, is being integrated into care to support physical, emotional and social wellbeing across a person’s healthspan and for the rest of their life.
TREND 1: Oncology Moves into Wellness
Cancer care is expanding beyond disease management to address how people live during and after treatment. Survivors often face fatigue, metabolic changes, emotional distress and uncertainty about how to rebuild daily life, reconnect with identity beyond cancer and reduce risk of recurrence.
Oncology programs are increasingly incorporating lifestyle medicine and behavioral change support into survivorship care. This transition is being facilitated by physician-led initiatives.
Oncologist Amy Comander, MD, DipABLM co-created PAVING the Path to Wellness, a lifestyle medicine program at Mass General Brigham for breast cancer survivors. It covers 12 lifestyle domains as PAVING STEPS to promote lasting health and resilience.
- PAVING (Physical Activity, Attitude, Variety, Investigations, Nutrition, Goals)
- STEPS (Stress Resiliency, Time Outs, Energy, Purpose, Sleep and Social Connection)
At AdventHealth in Central Florida, radiation oncologist Amber Orman, MD, DipABLM co-founded HEAL (Healthy Eating and Active Lifestyle), an eight-week lifestyle medicine program designed to help breast cancer patients and survivors adopt habits that support recovery and reduce recurrence risk.
At the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami, survivorship initiatives such as Believe in You: Survivorship in Motion combine progressive exercise training, plant-forward nutrition education and wellness coaching in a 20-week survivorship program designed to help patients regain strength and confidence after treatment.
As oncology moves into wellness, lifestyle medicine and behavior change support are becoming central to survivorship care. Wellness professionals supporting individuals touched by cancer should be trained in the latest evidence and certified in health and wellbeing coaching and lifestyle behavior change.
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TREND 2: Precision Prevention Adds Health Coaching for People with Genetic Cancer Risk
Precision medicine is expanding the ability to identify people with inherited cancer risk. Cancer prevention strategies are becoming more personalized for people with higher risk profiles.
At the University of Miami’s Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, Paola Rossi, MD, MSEd, clinical program director for lifestyle medicine, is part of a model that pairs genetic counseling with health coaching for people with cancer predisposition, family history or other elevated risk factors. Patients in Sylvester’s high-risk pathway often see a genetic counselor and a health coach on the same day, combining risk assessment with practical support for behavior change.
The logic for this program is simple but powerful: genetic information alone does not change behavior.
Nearly half of cancer cases are linked to modifiable factors. According to Paola Rossi, MD, MSEd, clinical program director “the health coach will meet with patients and identify weak spots in behaviors that, if targeted, could reduce cancer risk.” The program’s design and effectiveness stem from the ability to accurately assess individual risk and personalize cancer prevention strategies.
Nicholas Borja, MD, at Sylvester, underscores that having a genetic risk does not mean “there’s nothing you can do.”
Demand for this approach is growing. The program estimates seeing around 100 patients per month, reflecting increasing interest in prevention and risk reduction among individuals with inherited predisposition. The coaching workforce is expanding by 200%, illustrating the rapid demand for behavior change support alongside genetic counseling.
Programs like Sylvester’s suggest a new frontier in precision prevention. As more people learn they carry genetic risk for cancer, pairing genetic counseling with health coaching may become an important strategy for helping patients move from awareness of risk to practical action.
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TREND 3: Community as Medicine Expands Through Group Wellness Visits
Evidence increasingly shows that social connection and community engagement improve wellbeing for people affected by cancer. Participation in structured group activities reduces isolation, enhances emotional resilience and supports adoption of healthy behaviors such as movement, nutrition and stress management.
Open Source Wellness’s Community as Medicine (CAM) model puts these ideas into action. CAM features group health coaching led by board-certified health coaches and encourages health, wellbeing and social connection with culturally sensitive, trauma-aware programs created alongside communities and healthcare providers. Sessions integrate movement, nutrition, stress management and peer support to reinforce sustainable behavior change. The program is designed not only for chronic disease prevention, but also to reach underserved communities and expand equitable access to wellness education and supportive social networks.
Open Source Wellness CAM programs are delivered in partnership with community organizations such as YMCAs and other trusted community gathering spaces. By hosting programs in locations where people already connect and participate in community life, the model strengthens social support while making health coaching more accessible. Evaluations of CAM-style programs show reductions in anxiety and depressive symptoms, increased engagement in healthy behaviors and improvements in overall psychosocial wellbeing.
As mentioned in Trend 1, programs such as PAVING the Path to Wellness, HEAL and Believe in You: Survivorship in Motion are explicitly designed around community and social learning theory. These programs support behavior change by fostering social learning and self-efficacy.
In clinical settings, shared medical visits foster this community approach. In a shared medical visit, patients with similar conditions or health concerns meet together to learn about a health topic, then meet individually with the physician and, when applicable, a health coach. Shared medical visits improve patient knowledge, foster peer support and increase engagement with care plans.
The community and shared medical visit models create opportunities for the wellness sector to re-envision impactful programs beyond traditional wellness workshops. Programs can integrate shared wellness visits or community-based wellness initiatives staffed by healthcare professionals together with certified dietitians, personal trainers and health coaches.
Resources:
- Holt-Lunstad J, Smith TB, Baker M, Harris T, Stephenson D. Loneliness and social isolation as risk factors for mortality: A meta-analytic review. Perspectives on Psychological Science. 2015;10(2):227–237.
- Markle E, Emmert-Aronson B. Community as Medicine: The Open Source Wellness model for group health coaching and social connection. Open Source Wellness.
- Emmert-Aronson B, Markle E. Community-based group health coaching improves mental health and health behaviors: Outcomes from the Community as Medicine model. Open Source Wellness evaluation reports.
- Edelman D, Gierisch JM, McDuffie JR, et al. Shared medical appointments for chronic medical conditions: A systematic review. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2015;163(6):352–362.
- Kirsh SR, Aron DC, Johnson KD, Santurri LE, Stevenson LD, Jones KR. A realist review of shared medical appointments: How, for whom, and under what circumstances do they work? BMC Health Services Research. 2017;17:113.
TREND 4: OncoMenopause, the Double Whammy, Is Hot and Trending
A rapidly emerging conversation in women’s health is the intersection of menopause and cancer. As cancer survival improves globally, millions of women are now living decades beyond diagnosis while also navigating menopause that can begin during treatment and continue into survivorship. Cancer therapies including chemotherapy, ovarian suppression, radiation and endocrine treatments can disrupt ovarian function and trigger sudden or treatment-induced menopause. What was once considered a secondary side effect of treatment is now increasingly recognized as a major survivorship issue affecting quality of life for many women.
Cancer-related menopause is often more abrupt and more severe than natural menopause. Women may experience hot flashes, sleep disruption, sexual health changes, joint pain, cognitive shifts and accelerated bone loss. Because systemic hormone therapy may not be appropriate for some survivors—particularly those with hormone-sensitive cancers—managing symptoms requires careful clinical guidance. Increasingly, clinicians recognize that menopause care must be addressed as part of cancer treatment and survivorship planning.
Navigating menopause in the context of cancer often requires a combination of strategies. Clinical guidelines emphasize lifestyle approaches such as physical activity, nutrition, sleep support and stress management alongside non-hormonal therapies, with localized hormonal treatments (such as vaginal creams) considered in selected cases.
Clinical and education initiatives are beginning to close this gap in care. The OncoMenopause Consortium brings together oncologists, gynecologists, menopause specialists and other clinicians to advance education and collaboration at the intersection of oncology and menopause care. The initiative also provides educational resources for survivors navigating menopause after cancer.
As awareness grows, clear guidance matters. Providing support for women experiencing cancer-related menopause necessitates the involvement of professionals who possess specialized training and expertise. This is especially important in wellness environments, where support for people affected by cancer should come from qualified health professionals, as well as wellness practitioners who are trained in up-to-date, evidence-based methods and certified in cancer health and wellness coaching, lifestyle medicine and behavior change.
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TREND 5: Libido Liberation
An often-overlooked concern in cancer recovery is coming into focus: what happens to desire after illness. Many survivors report that while they may be medically cleared, they are not relationally or erotically restored. This gap is prompting new conversations across oncology, wellness and mental health sectors, reframing libido not as performance but as a vital dimension of recovery and quality of life.
“Libido liberation” reflects a shift away from goal-oriented sexuality toward permission-based desire. Rather than expecting survivors to return to a pre-illness sexual norm, this emerging perspective recognizes that body changes, hormonal shifts, nervous system sensitivity, grief and identity disruption can reshape how intimacy is experienced. In cancer care specifically, practitioners are increasingly acknowledging that body image distress and changes in desire are not secondary concerns—they are central to emotional health, partnership and long-term wellbeing.
These ideas are being advanced through intimacy-informed survivorship models, including the libido liberation framework developed by Cancer & Intimacy. The framework highlights three dimensions: erotic grief, acknowledging the loss of former identity, sensation or sexual function; listening, learning to attune to what the body genuinely wants after treatment; and liberation, giving survivors permission to redefine intimacy and sexuality on their own terms.
Psycho-oncology professionals and integrative care programs are beginning to incorporate these perspectives into patient-centered support models. As whole-person care continues to gain traction globally, libido liberation reflects a broader shift in survivorship.
Recovery is no longer defined solely by remission, but by the restoration of vitality, connection and embodied belonging after illness.
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EXPLORE THE WELLNESS FOR CANCER INITIATIVE
