Background: Women with breast cancer report numerous supportive care needs throughout the illness trajectory, including informational, psychological, physical and daily living challenges. Whilst information about the prevalence and predictors of supportive care needs is essential to guide service planning, little is known about how such needs differ around the world.

Aim: The review sought to address three questions: a) What are the unmet supportive care needs of women with breast cancer identified through research in Asian and Caucasian populations?  b) What predicts unmet supportive care needs of Asian and Caucasian women with breast cancer? c) How do supportive care needs influence psychological outcomes for Asian and Caucasian women?

Methods: An integrative review of research published since 2012 was undertaken to examine the supportive care/unmet needs of women with breast cancer from Asian or Caucasian origins.

Results: Of the 23 articles identified, results suggest that Asian women report higher levels of health system and information needs, whereas Caucasian women report higher psychological needs. Unmet needs may be predicted by age, marital status, symptom distress, depression or anxiety and care satisfaction, regardless of Asian/Caucasian status.

Conclusions: Overall, the two most frequently endorsed areas of unmet need are information/health systems and psychological needs. For both Asian and Caucasian women, sexuality needs were the lowest ranked concern; however they should not be overlooked, especially for younger and married/partnered women.  Our knowledge would be greatly enhanced by research with strong methodological designs involving longitudinal and interventional cross-cultural comparisons.