Background: Worldwide, 47% of cancer patients are diagnosed before the age of 65. Beyond the critical need to maintain employment for the financial wellbeing of cancer survivors and their families, work can help cancer survivors maintain a sense of normalcy, control, and personal identity. Many cancer survivors consider work to be an important component of recovery. Personal factors and workplace conditions/accommodations can strongly influence the quality of the survivor’s work experience. Measuring employment and quality of life (QoL) in this growing population could enhance our understanding of the health outcomes and needs of working-age cancer survivors.
 
Objectives: To conduct a scoping review of the literature to consolidate the available evidence regarding the association between work and QoL, each measured at any timepoint, among cancer survivors.
 
Methods: We conducted a scoping search of the literature using PubMed for English-language articles about cancer, work or employment, and QoL published between 1/1/2000 and 11/1/2025. Inclusion or exclusion of articles from the initial search was determined based on a two-stage procedure: first selection based on title/abstract and then on full text. In both stages, two reviewers independently screened an initial set of articles (20 for the first stage, and 10 for the second stage) to establish consistency, and then reviewed the remaining articles. Finally, they extracted relevant data from each article included. The reviewers met throughout the review and extraction process to discuss all questions and areas of disagreement and arrived at a consensus.
 
Results: 418 articles were identified. Of these, 109 were selected for full-text review based on their titles and abstracts; 31 were selected for inclusion based on full-text review, representing studies across 19 countries. 18 articles described longitudinal studies, 13 cross-sectional studies; 11 described clinical trials. Employment was generally defined based on employment status (working vs. not working). Some studies looked at time to return to work and/or number of sick days taken. QoL was assessed using several validated measures, including the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) and the 12-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12), European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Core Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30), EuroQol-5 Dimensions (EQ-5D), Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G), and Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast (FACT-B). Of 19 studies that clearly defined employment status based on our criteria and reported its association with QoL, 6 reported no statistically significant association; 13 reported a statistically significant positive association. Of these 13, 7 were were based on longitudinal studies: 4 showed that survivors with better QoL had improved subsequent work outcomes, and 3 showed a correlation between work and QoL measured concurrently. 
 
Conclusions/Implications: Relatively few studies have examined the association between work status and QoL. The existing evidence supports a positive association between employment and QoL, but the lack of serial longitudinal assessments limits our ability to draw causal conclusions about the effects of working on subsequent QoL. This review highlights an important opportunity for future research to understand potential causal pathways between employment and QoL among cancer survivors.