Developing a Comprehensive Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Program: Lessons Learned from 7 Years of Growth and Progress

Abstract

Purpose: Every year, nearly 100,000 adolescents and young adults (15-39 years, AYAs) are diagnosed with cancer in the United States and many have unmet physical, psychosocial, and practical needs during and after cancer treatment. In response to demands for improved cancer care delivery for this population, specialized AYA cancer programs have emerged across the country. However, cancer centers face multilevel barriers to developing and implementing AYA cancer programs and would benefit from more robust guidance on how to approach AYA program development. Methods: To contribute to this guidance, we describe the development of an AYA cancer program at the University of North Carolina (UNC) Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center. Results: We summarize the evolution of UNC's AYA Cancer Program since it was established in 2015, offering pragmatic strategies for developing, implementing, and sustaining AYA cancer programs. Conclusion: The development of the UNC AYA Cancer Program since 2015 has generated many lessons learned that we hope may be informative to other cancer centers seeking to build specialized services for AYAs.

Keywords: AYA cancer care; AYA oncology; AYA program development; comprehensive AYA cancer program.

FIG. 1.

Time line for the UNC AYA Cancer Program summarizing team member and programmatic activity growth. Addition of new team members indicated by dark gray boxes. AGNP, Adult Gerontology Nurse Practitioner; AYA, adolescent and young adult; BA, Bachelor of Arts; LCSW, Licensed Clinical Social Worker; MD, Doctor of Medicine; NA-SB, Needs Assessment and Service Bridge; NC, North Carolina; NP, nurse practitioner; UNC, University of North Carolina; yo, years old.