The Problem With AYA’s: The Divide

Since the 1970s, adolescents and young adult (AYA) survival rates have lagged behind those of children and adult cancer patients. Ages 0-14 are treated at children’s hospitals and facilities and ages 25+ are treated at adult patient hospitals, placing the adolescents in ages 15-25 in a no-man’s-land for expertise. Their ages put them at a greater risk. What’s more, adolescents and young adults with cancer are caught in limbo; their youthful resilience has begun to fade and, possibly as a result, their cure rates tend to be lower. Some are still too young to qualify for adult clinical trials while those who are young adults may not be insured and therefore don’t see a health professional regularly.

NUT carcinoma is considered an AYA cancer. Most cases arise between ages 15-26. NUT carcinoma is currently without an FDA approved treatment. However, researchers who have been studying the disease are getting closer to cracking the code and discovering therapies, so hope is on the horizon.

AYAs deserve better treatments and more dedicated research into the cancers they get and why.

Facts about AYA cancer:

• 82,000 adolescents and young adults diagnosed with cancer each year.

• 3 times more people are diagnosed with cancer in the second 15 years of life than the first.

• Almost all cancer cases diagnosed under the age of 30 have an unexplained causation.

*Graphic reference: 13thirty.org