scholarly journals Germ Cell Tumors in Adolescents and Young Adults

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (8) ◽  
pp. 433-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana Fonseca ◽  
A. Lindsay Frazier ◽  
Furqan Shaikh

Germ cell tumors (GCTs) are rare in childhood, representing only 3.5% of childhood cancers, but a common malignancy in adolescents and young adults (AYAs), accounting for 13.9% of neoplasms in adolescents between age 15 and 19 years. The overall outcomes of patients treated for GCTs are excellent. However, as seen in other cancers, outcomes for AYA patients are significantly worse. Understanding the reasons for this observation has led to different approaches to diagnosis, staging, and treatment. The Malignant Germ Cell International Consortium was created to bring together pediatric, gynecologic, and testicular cancer specialists to promote research initiatives and provide evidence-based approaches in the management of GCTs across different age groups. Collaboration between multiple subspecialties is essential to further understand the disease continuum, the underlying biologic characteristics, and the development of appropriate therapeutic approaches. This review focuses on the unique characteristics of patients with extracranial GCTs in the AYA group.

2019 ◽  
Vol 143 (2) ◽  
pp. 289-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea C. Lo ◽  
Normand Laperriere ◽  
David Hodgson ◽  
Eric Bouffet ◽  
James Nicholson ◽  
...  

2018 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 272-272
Author(s):  
Sara J. Stoneham ◽  
Juliet P. Hale ◽  
Carlos Rodriguez‐Galindo ◽  
Ha Dang ◽  
Thomas Olson ◽  
...  

2014 ◽  
Vol 19 (7) ◽  
pp. 689-692 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara J. Stoneham ◽  
Juliet P. Hale ◽  
Carlos Rodriguez‐Galindo ◽  
Ha Dang ◽  
Thomas Olson ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 37 (7_suppl) ◽  
pp. 521-521
Author(s):  
Maryam Soleimani ◽  
Cheryl Ho ◽  
Christian K. Kollmannsberger ◽  
Alan Bates ◽  
Bonnie Leung

521 Background: Germ cell tumours are the most common cancer of male adolescents and young adults (AYA, age 18-39). Men in this age group have been healthy much of their lives, and are at a stage of personal and professional growth, consequently a diagnosis of cancer can cause significant psychosocial distress. We evaluated patient reported psychosocial distress and hypothesized that AYA compared to older patients experienced more anxiety and distress in emotional, practical and physical domains. Methods: All patients referred to BC Cancer complete the Psychosocial Screen for Cancer (PSSCAN-R) at first consultation. This is a validated screening questionnaire for distress. Components include a screen for subclinical/clinical symptoms of depression and anxiety and the Canadian Problem Checklist (CPC) with 6 domains of concern: emotional, informational, practical, spiritual, social/family and physical. Results: Data was collected for 349 patients from 2011-2015. Baseline characteristics: 227 (65%) AYA, median age 33 (range 18-83), 41 (11%) metastatic disease at diagnosis. The top 3 AYA concerns were work/school (38.3%), financial (34.8%), frustration and anger (26%). AYA patients scored positive for subclinical/clinical anxiety more commonly than their older counterparts (39.4% vs. 27.9%, p = 0.028). AYA patients with subclinical/clinical anxiety symptoms experienced more fears and worries (41.5%), concerns regarding work/school (38%), lack of understanding of their disease (37.9%), finances (35.3%) and frustration and anger (26.3%) than AYA patients who do not express anxiety symptoms. Conclusions: The results of this study indicate that AYA with testicular cancer have unique needs and experience significantly more self-reported anxiety symptoms with emotional, informational, and practical concerns. Programs tailored to address needs of AYA patients may help reduce anxiety and improve the cancer experience. The results of this study are valuable to stakeholders for allocation of resources to address psychosocial parameters of distress in this patient group.


2020 ◽  
Vol 38 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e13629-e13629
Author(s):  
Wei Lin Goh ◽  
Jiancheng Hong ◽  
Evelyn Wong ◽  
Victoria Wong ◽  
Daniel Quah ◽  
...  

e13629 Background: Cancer in adolescents and young adults (AYAOs) refers to patients diagnosed with a malignancy between 16 and 39 years old. This is thought to be 5% in the Western population. The exact incidence and distribution in Asia is uncertain although the WHO estimated 650 000 AYAs to be newly diagnosed in this part of the world in 2018. There is limited data on the incidence and epidemiology on AYAs in Asia, but it is known from the western literature that the distribution of cancer types, clinico-pathological features and outcomes in this population is very different. We therefore, sought to evaluate the pattern of cancer types among the different age groups of the AYA population seen in a high-volume single Asian tertiary cancer centre. Methods: We undertook a retrospective observational study of all patients diagnosed with cancer between 16 and 39 years old who presented to the National Cancer Centre Singapore (NCCS) from 1 January 2015 to 31 December 2019. Results: A total of 2583 cases was observed during the 5-year period. The male: female ratio was 1:1.75. The majority of the patients were between of 35-39 years (y) ( n= 1128, 44.0%). The most common cancer across the different age groups in females were sarcoma (16-19 y), hematologic malignancies (20-24 y) and breast cancer (25-29 y, 30-34 y and 35-39 y). The most common cancer across the different age groups in males were hematologic malignancies (16-19 y), germ cell tumours (20-24 y), germ cell tumours, hematologic malignancies and sarcoma (25-29 y), hematologic malignancies (30-34 y) and colorectal cancers (35-39 y). The majority of the patients presented were localized disease (38.3%), while 19.4% presented with lymphatic involvement. Amongst 507 (19.6%) patients presenting with metastatic disease, 126 patients have deceased. Conclusions: This population has unique characteristics compared to their geriatric and pediatric counterparts. With an increased incidence and expected longer survivals, more efforts are needed to better understand the clinicopathological features of the AYA population. This will enable us to better survival rates and long-term treatment outcomes.


Author(s):  
Andrea Lo ◽  
Normand Laperriere ◽  
David Hodgson ◽  
Eric Bouffet ◽  
James Nicholson ◽  
...  

2022 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuechan Lyu ◽  
Tianzhen Chen ◽  
Zhe Wang ◽  
Jing Lu ◽  
Chenyi Ma ◽  
...  

Abstract Background In recent years, there have been frequent reports of gaming disorder in China, with more focus on young people. We developed and psychometrically tested a Gaming Disorder screening scale (i.e., Gaming Disorder Screening Scale - GDSS) for Chinese adolescents and young adults, based on the existing scales and diagnostic criteria, but also considering the development status of China. Methods For testing content and criterion validity, 1747 participants competed the GDSS and the Internet Addiction Test (IAT). After 15 days, 400 participants were retested with the scales for to assess test-retest reliability. Besides, 200 game players were interviewed for a diagnosis of gaming disorder. Results The Cronbach’s alpha coefficient on the GDSS was 0.93. The test-retest coefficient of 0.79. Principal components analysis identified three factors accounting for 62.4% of the variance; behavior, functioning, cognition and emotion. Confirmatory factor analysis showed a good model fit to the data (χ2 /df = 5.581; RMSEA =0.074; TLI = 0.916, CFI = 0.928). The overall model fit was significantly good in the measurement invariance tested across genders and different age groups. Based on the clinical interview, the screening cut-off point was determined to be ≥47 (sensitivity 41.4%, specificity 82.3%). Conclusions The GDSS demonstrated good reliability and validity aspects for screening online gaming disorder among Chinese adolescents and young adults.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Del Fiore ◽  
Irene Russo ◽  
Beatrice Ferrazzi ◽  
Alessandro Dal Monico ◽  
Francesco Cavallin ◽  
...  

The “Veneto Cancer Registry” records melanoma as the most common cancer diagnosed in males and the third common cancer in females under 50 years of age in the Veneto Region (Italy). While melanoma is rare in children, it has greater incidence in adolescents and young adults (AYA), but literature offers only few studies specifically focused on AYA melanoma. The aim of this study was to describe the characteristics, surgical treatment, and prognosis of a cohort of AYA melanoma in order to contribute to the investigation of this malignancy and provide better patient care. This retrospective cohort study included 2,752 Caucasian patients (702 AYA and 2,050 non-AYA patients) from the Veneto Region who were over 15 years of age at diagnosis, and who received diagnosis and/or treatment from our institutions between 1998 and 2014. Patients were divided in adolescents and youth (15-25 years), young adults (26-39 years) and adults (more than 39 years) for the analysis. We found statistically significant differences in gender, primary site, Breslow thickness, ulceration, pathologic TNM classification (pTNM) stage and tumor subtype among the age groups. Disease-specific survival and disease-free survival were also different among the age groups. Our findings suggest that the biological behavior of melanoma in young people is different to that in adults, but not such as to represent a distinct pathological entity. Additional and larger prospective studies should be performed to better evaluate potential biological and cancer-specific differences between AYAs and the adult melanoma population.


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