Saloustros, E, Stark, DP orcid.org/0000-0002-6172-733X, Michailidou, K et al. (7 more authors) (2017) The care of adolescents and young adults with cancer: results of the ESMO/SIOPE survey. ESMO Open, 2 (4). e000252. ISSN 2059-7029
Abstract
Introduction Adolescents and young adults (AYA) with cancer require dedicated clinical management and care. Little is known about the training and practice of European healthcare providers in regard to AYA and the availability of specialised services.
Methods A link to an online survey was sent to members of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) and the European Society for Paediatric Oncology (SIOPE). The link was also sent to ESMO National Representatives and circulated to other European oncology groups. Questions covered the demographics and clinical training of respondents, their definition of AYA, education about AYA cancer, access to specialised clinical and supportive care, research and further education. Data from Europe were analysed by region.
Results Three hundred tweenty two questionnaires were submitted and we focused on data from the 266 European healthcare professionals. Responses revealed considerable variation both within and between countries in the definition of AYA. Over two-thirds of respondents did not have access to specialised centres for AYA (67%), were not aware of research initiatives focusing on AYA with cancer (69%) and had no access to specialist services for managing the late effects of treatment (67%). The majority of the respondents were able to refer AYA patients to professional psychological support and specialised social workers. However, more than half had no access to an age-specialised nurse or specialised AYA education. Overall, 38% of respondents reported that their AYA patients did not have access to fertility specialists. This figure was 76% in Eastern Europe. Lack of specialised AYA care was particularly evident in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe.
Conclusion There is important underprovision and inequity of AYA cancer care across Europe. Improving education and research focused on AYA cancer care should be a priority.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © European Society for Medical Oncology (unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Medicine and Health (Leeds) > School of Medicine (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 18 Jun 2018 14:26 |
Last Modified: | 18 Jun 2018 14:26 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | BMJ Publications |
Identification Number: | 10.1136/esmoopen-2017-000252 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:132250 |