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.