Between illness and health: A scoping review of cancer experience through the construct of liminality.

Abstract

Individuals affected by cancer (IAC) often oscillate between two states during or after treatment: feeling ill/cured or dying/living. This in-between state relates to liminality; however, the construct is used differently from one study to another, which creates indeterminacy. Our scoping review aims to clarify how liminality is theoretically defined and applied in psycho-oncology to describe IAC's experiences and identify the associated concepts. We searched five databases using English and French keywords, selecting 20 peer-reviewed studies from 454 retrieved. Studies associated liminality with words such as state, space, or experience. They used often liminality in contexts involving psychological, social, or physical difficulties. Despite differences across studies, convergent points emerged. We propose a tentative definition of liminality: a state where IAC face significant difficulties following cancer experience, which persist and marginalize them until they redefine their identity. Health professionals could identify IAC in liminal states to provide appropriate support.