The survivorship definition we use is depicted in Figure 1. Currently, AYAs face several challenges in the transition from active cancer treatment to surveillance and early and late survivorship care. There is, however, a paucity of evidence delineating these medical and psychosocial sequelae of AYA cancer survivors that are highly needed to underpin the design of AYA survivorship care programs and to ensure the quality of their survival. This rapidly growing AYA cancer survivor cohort is at increased risk of cancer- and treatment-related long-term and late effects. Over the last decades, the incidence of cancer in AYAs has increased, and >80% is expected to survive beyond 5 years, meaning that there will be ever more AYA cancer survivors with the potential of many decades of life still to live. This article describes the population of AYA cancer survivors according to their epidemiology and late and long-term effects, the challenges and models of AYA survivorship care, as well as future opportunities for research and healthcare.Īdolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer patients, those who are diagnosed with cancer for the first time at the age of 15–39 years, are recognized as a distinct population within the oncology community due to the unique challenges they face throughout their disease trajectory: from symptom recognition, diagnosis and treatment to disease monitoring, advanced care planning, and survivorship. With increasing incidence and improving survival for many tumor types, leading to the majority of AYA patients with cancer becoming long-term survivors, there is a critical need for research efforts to inform the survivorship care of this growing population. Extensive survivorship research in recent decades has focused on patients diagnosed with cancer as children (39 years), yet few studies to date have reported outcomes specifically for patients diagnosed as AYAs. Although considerable variability exists according to cancer site and stage of disease, the 5-year relative survival at the time of diagnosis has been estimated at >80% for all AYA patients with cancer combined. Worldwide, more than 1.2 million adolescents and young adults (AYAs those aged 15–39 years) are diagnosed with cancer each year.

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