Survival from cancer in teenagers and young adults in England, 1979–2003

Abstract

Cancer is the leading cause of disease-related death in teenagers and young adults aged 13 -24 years (TYAs) in England. We have analysed national 5-year relative survival among more than 30 000 incident cancer cases in TYAs. For cancer overall, 5-year survival improved from 63% in 197963% in -84 to 74% during 199663% in -2001. However, there were no sustained improvements in survival over time among high-grade brain tumours and bone and soft tissue sarcomas. Survival patterns varied by age group (13 -16, 17 -20, 21 -24 years), sex and diagnosis. Survival from leukaemia and brain tumours was better in the youngest age group but in the oldest from germ-cell tumours (GCTs). For lymphomas, bone and soft tissue sarcomas, melanoma and carcinomas, survival was not significantly associated with age. Females had a better survival than males except for GCTs. Most groups showed no association between survival and socioeconomic deprivation, but for leukaemias, head and neck carcinoma and colorectal carcinoma, survival was significantly poorer with increasing deprivation. These results will aid the development of national specialised service provision for this age group and identify areas of clinical need that present the greatest challenges.

How frequently do young people with potential cancer symptoms present in primary care?

“…21,22 Young people themselves emphasise the importance of timely diagnosis, with 60% of teenagers and young adults with cancer at a recent patient conference identifying the improvement of time to cancer diagnosis as the most important area of research. 23 Understanding how and why young people use primary care services is an important step in developing education tools and strategies that could help GPs to identify and refer appropriately young people with a suspected cancer sooner than they do at present.…”

Survival trends of cancer amongst the south Asian and non-south Asian population under 30 years of age in Yorkshire, UK

“…Cancer survival rates for children and young adults across Europe have improved markedly over recent decades, yet outcomes for certain types of cancers have been shown to vary by gender, age, treatment, place of care, geographical location and deprivation [1][2][3][4].…”

Survival patterns in teenagers and young adults with cancer in the United Kingdom: Comparisons with younger and older age groups

“…The same age range was used in a previous survival analysis [2]. We also restricted the upper limit of the TYA age range to 24 years to increase the likelihood of comparable treatment delivery within the group [16].…”

“…This may imply more advanced disease at diagnosis, possibly secondary to the minimum age of cervical screening in the UK being twenty-five years. [2]. In the UK benign and borderline CNS tumours are included when calculating survival for CNS tumours, while these are usually excluded from US analyses.…”

“…While some cancer types (such as Hodgkin's disease, germ cell tumours and melanoma) have excellent survival, others (such as sarcomas and central nervous system (CNS) tumours) have much poorer results [2][3][4]. Although cancer outcomes have improved, teenagers and young adults (TYAs) may not have seen the dramatic improvements seen in younger children and older adults [5].…”