Cancer adolescent pathway in France between 1988 and 1997

Fiche publication


Date publication

février 2007

Auteurs

Membres identifiés du Cancéropôle Est :
Dr DESANDES Emmanuel, Dr LACOUR Brigitte, Pr VELTEN Michel


Tous les auteurs :
Desandes E, Lacour B, Sommelet D, White-Koning M, Velten M, Tretarre B, Marr A, Maarouf N, Guizard AV, Delafosse P, Danzon A, Cotte C, Brugieres L

Résumé

We report an adolescent cancer pathway from referral, through diagnosis and treatment, to follow-up in France. All, cases of cancer among 15-19 years, diagnosed from 1988 to 1997, recorded by nine French population-based cancer registries (10% of French population) were included. The management of adolescent cancer by paediatricians was rare. An adolescents' pathway through cancer care can be summarized as first visit to general practitioner, referral to adult oncologist for haematological malignancy and medical or surgical specialists for solid tumours, treatment in adult unit, and follow-up by adult oncologist, adult medical or surgical specialist, or general practitioner. Only 9% of the 15-19 years are entered into a clinical trial (respectively 6% and 3% into adult and paediatric clinical trial). The inclusion rate changes according to the diagnosis, higher for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (39%), non-Hodgkin's lymphomas (NHL) (27%), and acute non-lymphoblastic leukaemia (20%). Only 4% of adolescent cancers were managed on shared adult/paediatric departments, especially for soft-tissue sarcomas (14.9%), malignant bone tumours (13.4), central nervous system tumours (6.2%), and NHL (4.4%). Whatever the reasons for lack of participation in clinical trials, an ideal model requiring communication and cooperation between all adult and paediatric specialists involved in adolescent cancer treatment should reduce the large gap in access to cooperative groups. (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Référence

Eur J Oncol Nurs. 2007 Feb;11(1):74-81