PITTSBURGH, Jan. 16 (UPI) -- Oncologists at Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh say there is a lack of access to clinical trials for teens with cancer and it is hurting their survival.
Nationally, cure rates in children younger than 15 with cancer have improved dramatically during the last 30 years, increasing from 60 percent to approximately 85 percent at five years from the time of diagnosis.
However, similar improvements in survival rates have not been seen in adolescents and young adults ages 15 to 22 -- and cure rates for those patients remained steady at approximately 70 percent during the same 30-year period.
Study leader Dr. Peter Shaw said adolescents and young adults with cancer are less likely than younger children to be enrolled in clinical trials for two reasons.
"The first factor is that adolescent and young adult patients are frequently treated by adult oncologists at hospitals that aren't participating in clinical trials designed for cancers occurring in the pediatric and adolescent age groups," Shaw said in a statement. "Our study demonstrated the second reason, which is that nationally, there are many more clinical trials available for the types of malignancies that most often occur in the younger patients."
The findings are published in the Journal of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology.
