Upper age limits for accessing pediatric oncology centers in Italy: a barrier preventing adolescents with cancer from entering national cooperative AIEOP trials

Abstract

A limited proportion of adolescents with cancer currently receives treatment at pediatric oncology centers and this factor is considered one of the possible explanations for the lack of improvement in survival trends observed over the years in this age group. The adoption of inflexible upper age limits for admitting patients to pediatric units may help to explain this situation. This paper reports the results of a national survey on adolescents' access to, and age limits adopted by, Italian pediatric oncology centers, briefly discussing possible actions to bridge the gap in adolescents' access to care. The analysis showed a great variability in the upper age limits adopted at Italian pediatric oncology centers; in many cases age limits are set at 16, 15, or even 14 years. As major finding, a correlation was documented between age limits and number of adolescents treated in the pediatric centers. In principle, this finding should suggest that increasing the upper age limit may result in an increase of the access of adolescents in pediatric oncology centers.