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. 2023 Dec;109(6):546-554.
doi: 10.1177/03008916231183477. Epub 2023 Jul 24.

Have we made progress in taking care of adolescents and young adults with cancer? Results of a European multi-professional survey

Ivana Bozovic Spasojevic  1 , Andrea Ferrari  2 , Johan De Munter  3   4 , Ashley Gamble  5 , Assia Konsoulova-Kirova  6 , Katie Rizvi  7 , Carina Schneider  8 , Marie Balsat  9 , Anna Castleton  10 , Leila Gofti-Laroche  11 , Anita Kienesberger  8 , Beate Timmermann  12 , Josef Vormoor  13 , Emmanouil Saloustros  14 , Daniel P Stark  15
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Have we made progress in taking care of adolescents and young adults with cancer? Results of a European multi-professional survey

Ivana Bozovic Spasojevic et al. Tumori. 2023 Dec.

Abstract

Background: It is well documented that traditional health care models do not meet the specific needs of Adolescents and Young Adults (AYA) cancer patients.

Methods: We explore a map of the development of age-specific AYA cancer care across Europe, from the perspective of healthcare professionals with an interest in AYA care, in order to understand the specific challenges and map progress over time. An on-line survey was developed by international professional cancer organisations.

Results: We had 377 respondents from 60 countries. The majority of respondents were physicians 298 (79%), a minority of survey respondents (39, 10.4%) work exclusively with AYA patients, most respondents declared substantial and routine clinical service collaborations to provide care and treatment to AYA with cancer. Policy for the multidisciplinary management of AYA cancer patients commonly appears in Europe now, and was reported by 234 (78.52%) respondents. Specific professional training for AYA cancer care is not uniformly available.

Conclusion: There is considerable opportunity for many organisations to work together in raising the profile of AYA cancer related issues, in providing education and in encouraging research and collaboration.

Keywords: Adolescents and young adults; cancer; survey.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interestsThe author(s) declared the following potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: Prof Dan Stark has received grant funding for AYA cancer research from the Teenage Cancer Trust, UK NIHR, UK ESRC and EU Horizon programmes.The other authors declare that there is no conflict of interest.

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