title: "You're too young for this": adolescent and young adults' perspectives on cancer survivorship.
abstract: Adolescent and young adult cancer survivors face unique challenges not systematically addressed by cancer clinicians. Four focus groups and two individual interviews were conducted with 19 survivors to profile experiences and identify key concerns for future interventions. The resultant themes reflect cancer care continuum challenges (such as delays in diagnosis, problems with adherence), psychosocial concerns (such as infertility and reproductive concerns, changing social relationships, financial burden), and the paradox of being diagnosed with cancer as a young adult. Future intervention development for adolescent and young adult survivors should involve patient voices at each stage of the research process.
authors.affiliation: Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program and Office of Cancer Survivorship, National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Rockville, MD 20852, USA. erin.kent@nih.gov
authors.forename: Erin E
authors.initials: EE
authors.lastname: Kent
authors.forename: Carla
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Parry
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Montoya
authors.forename: Leonard S
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Sender
authors.forename: Rebecca A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Morris
authors.forename: Hoda
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Anton-Culver
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D017281:Cost of Illness; D057210:Delayed Diagnosis / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D017144:Focus Groups; D006801:Humans; D007246:Infertility / Q000209:etiology / Q000523:psychology; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D055118:Medication Adherence / Q000523:psychology; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D011584:Psychology; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*; D055815:Young Adult