Abstract
Cancer in adolescents 15–19 years of age occurs at nearly twice the rate observed
in 5- to 14-year-olds, but as of yet they have no explicit organisation for research
and care, such as that structured for younger paediatric patients. Adolescents with
cancer must be recognised as a subgroup of oncology patients with specific characteristics
and needs requiring dedicated interest and management. The need is made most evident
as outcome data indicates that adolescents are lagging behind in survival gains made
in recent decades by both children and adults with cancer. Improvements in the overall
survival, quality of care and quality of survival of adolescents with cancer will
only occur by surmounting the challenges, discussed in this review, unique to this
group of patients.
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
September 11,
2003
Received in revised form:
September 5,
2003
Received:
May 25,
2003
Identification
Copyright
© 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
