Objectives: To discuss three contextual factors related to advanced cancer: socioeconomic status, race and racism, and religion and spirituality.
Data sources: Published qualitative research, quantitative research, journal articles.
Conclusion: A diagnosis of advanced cancer in marginalized individuals means that people are diagnosed much later, do not have the social, political, and economic capital available to deal with the diagnosis, have more serious complications, and their quality of life is compounded by unequal quality of care. IMPLICATIONS TO NURSING PRACTICE: Examples are provided of successful evidenced-based strategies that can be extrapolated by nurses to a cancer population.