title: Health promotion in adolescent and young adult cancer survivors: mobilizing compliance in a multifaceted risk profile.
abstract: With rising cure rates of childhood cancer, nurse practitioners have an increased chance of encountering a large survivor cohort in practice. A variety of late effects programs exist; however, funding is limited for these programs and is not accessible for all patients. Primary providers may increasingly act as a medical home for childhood cancer survivors (CCS). Understanding the inherent risks of cytotoxic treatment and the progressive consequences of late effects is vital to limit morbidity and mortality. Adolescent and young adult survivors (AYA) are particularly apt to make health behavior decisions that create risks for comorbidities. Developmentally appropriate experimentation with drug, alcohol, or tobacco use and increased ultraviolet ray exposure intensifies the risk for secondary malignancies and novel diseases. The paucity of evidence-based surveillance guidelines and survivor-specific health promotion programs cumulatively widen the gap in noncompliance and misinformation. This article overviews the risk profile of CCS. It explores health practices, as well as emerging health promotion techniques, within the AYA survivor population and the role nurse practitioners have in enhancing health maintenance.
authors.affiliation: Columbia University School of Nursing, New York, NY, USA. meaganhmurphy@gmail.com
authors.forename: Meagan H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Murphy
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D015438:Health Behavior; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008019:Life Style; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010349:Patient Compliance; D018570:Risk Assessment; D017741:Survivors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: behavioral risk factors; health promotion; nurse practitioner; pediatric cancer survivors