Support of Teenagers and Young Adults with Cancer

Abstract

Teenagers and young adults (TYA) with cancer (TYAC) are a unique population among people with cancer. Their medical specificities and complex psychological and social needs between the pediatric and adult world are challenges for the carers, from the diagnosis to the posttreatment period. TYAC care units and national multidisciplinary TYAC programs have been developed in the last three decades in several countries, helped by an active collaboration between pediatric and “adult” hematology/oncology teams. Their main mission is to take into account all this complexity to better tailor the medical and psychosocial care to the disease, the treatments, and the specific TYA needs, with the help of several professionals specialized in TYA care (pediatric and medical hematologists/oncologists, facilitators, psychologists, social workers, and coordinating nurses). The role of the coordinating nurses is central both in the TYAC team and for the young people. TYAC coordinating nurses coordinate the patient pathway of care from the diagnosis, all along and beyond the treatments, helping TYAC to understand the disease and its consequences, answering their questions about treatment and everyday life, and accompanying and empowering them to help them be young people. Therapeutic education is an interesting tool to achieve these goals. Single or collective workshops have been built around various themes of specific interests for TYA to help them deal with cancer during this transition period of adolescence and young adulthood (physical changes, relationships, education/work, etc.). Building this kind of therapeutic educational program is a collaborative work with coordinating nurses, different professionals, and TYA themselves. Such active collaboration between adult and pediatric nurses is still needed and could be the starting point of new nursing researches.