Influencing Referral of Adolescents and Young Adults With Cancer to Sites With Higher Rates of Trial Enrollment abstract

Adolescents and young adults (AYAs) have lower rates of clinical trial enrollment than younger or older patients with cancer. Multiple approaches to change policy and practice need to be used to improve this statistic. This article examines the option of increasing referral to 3 types of centers that are known to have relatively higher rates of enrollment of AYAs: pediatric cancer centers, AYA oncology programs, and National Cancer Institute–designated cancer centers. There are reasonable challenges to changing referral patterns, and more research, as well as education of those diagnosing AYAs, is required. Pediatrics 2014;133:S104–S108 AUTHORS: Karen H. Albritton, MD,ab and Peter Coccia, MDc aCook Children’s Medical Center, Fort Worth, Texas; bDepartment of Pediatrics, University of North Texas Health Science Center, Fort Worth, Texas; and cDepartment of Pediatrics, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska