Everyone has these defining moments in
their lives and in mine just happened to
be how are you going to treat this are
you a victim or are you a survivor, so
when we talk about adolescent and
young adult cancers we are referring
specifically to the group of patients
that are between ages 15 to age 39 this
group of patients had sort of fallen
through the cracks not only from the
medical standpoint of their treatment
for cancer but also from giving them the
necessary support they need
there has been very little attention
paid by by medical researchers and
clinicians to this group as a distinct
entity lot of attention to children with
cancer a lot of attention to older
people with cancer but very little
attention until recently to the young
adult group the kinds of cancer they
have the treatments they respond to all
these issues that are important
the challenge again is the fact that the age
group of adolescents and young adults
with cancer spans a bit of the pediatric
age range in a bit of the the medical
oncology age range and so to define the
best care providers for the disease that
the patient has and you know that the
unique biology of that as well as their
unique psychosocial needs is is an issue
with these patients
also people don't think about cancer when an adolescent or
young adults comes to a doctor with
symptoms they think about everything
other than cancer so diagnosis is often delayed
to have cancer at that time in
your life is it presents tremendous
challenges in an environment that
already is very challenging so in order
to take care of these patients
effectively you've got to address the
environment as well not just the medical
aspect
there's been a convergence of interest
from the National Cancer Institute the
Lance Armstrong Foundation the
cooperative groups as well as may
advocacy organizations and with all of
these groups coming together this been
an incredible awareness of the issues of
adolescents and young adults which is
leading to a new journal for the screw
and specific research initiatives within this group
some of the most important
research questions are which therapy
works best for the adolescent and young
adult population both in terms of
maximizing survival rate and minimizing
late effects from the other most
important research questions have to do
with distinguishing what is the
distinctive characteristics of a young
adult with cancer
what is involved in developing a program
a comprehensive program for truly young
adults with cancer I think that is
essential
no matter what else we developing
research in other areas we've got to
have the right model of care and i think
that is being developed the number of
institutions and we need to learn from
the experiences of those institutions in
order to go forward with other programs
you have that models that can be
replicated not just a major cancer
centers but in the community as well
we need a better understanding of the
biology of these cancers we also need
better understanding of the epidemiology
around these cancers as well as a lot of
the psychosocial needs and research but
but the biology i think is what's going
to lead to I think increased survival
rates for people affected by cancer in
this age group and and the faster we can
understand those biologic differences
the better were able to respond with
more targeted treatments
we need to develop clinical research that takes the
biology that we develop translates into
new trials that will help us treat these
patients better and also looks at the
environmental issues in a research manner
being able to more effectively
target psychosocial interventions that
meet the needs of of that population and
ensure that if they are diagnosed they
are not deprived of all of the resources
that are available to help them deal
with their their disease that includes
access to insurance, financial resources
practical assistance
you know we know that this population
tends to be underinsured as opposed to
the general population they tend to be
just starting their career or in school
and really at pivotal points in their
lives and so no one should have a cancer
diagnosis affect their the rest of their
lives negatively unnecessarily