"We need to explore why young people have a very low entry rate into clinical trials. Are doctors failing to enter them because they think they will not agree, or are young people voting with their feet and refusing to join trials? Anecdotal evidence to date suggests that principally it is doctors who don't enter them into trials and a questionnaire of 271 young cancer patients has shown that 50% of them were never asked if they'd like to participate in a trial. We need to define for each disease grouping if there is a clinical trial and if not, why not.
"We need to work on a programme of education and training of specialists with an interest in teenagers and young adults, and we need to educate young people, their family and carers, teachers and GPs about the signs and symptoms of cancer.
"If teenagers have worrying symptoms they tend to delay going to their GP, hoping the symptoms will disappear. Once they do go to their GP, the GP often may not recognise the symptoms and so there is a delay before they refer the patient to a specialist. When they do refer, it is not always to the right person or the right centre. So we need to educate young people, their families, carers and teachers, so that they realise that if a young person has persistent or worrying signs or symptoms, they should seek medical help. Even more importantly, we need to make sure that the medical profession is well educated as to the meaning of such signs and symptoms and do not fail their patients by delays in diagnosis.
"None of this can be achieved without a coordinated effort from the medical professions."
Professor Eden said that while much needs to be done to improve things, the UK was leading the way over the treatment of this age group, with seven specialist TCT units established and more planned. In addition, in August 2005 NICE (National Institute for
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Contact: Emma Mason
wordmason@mac.com
44-077-112-96986
Teenage Cancer Trust
29-Mar-2006