Young patients aged from mid-teens to early thirties are called the “AYA Generation1.” Cancer patients of this generation are usually taken care of at the clinical departments for pediatric cancer or for adult-typed cancer at most medical institutions in Japan. As they do not really belong to either, voices for improvements have been raised to prepare medical facilities where generations from childhood to AYA or from AYA to adulthood can take continuous cancer treatments. At the SCC, as a response to those voices, the “AYA Generation Ward” for cancer patients of this generation opened in June, 2015.
Cancer patients in the AYA generation are featured as follows: 1. Pediatric type of cancer and adult type are detected as mixed in the patients of this generation, as pediatric type is sometimes detected among the AYA generation, while adult type can also arise among them. Their primary cancers can often be detected in multiple organs. 2. The improvement index of the five-year survival rate (median annual improvement index of the five-year survival rate from 1975 to 1997), which is taken as a reference to prove advancement of cancer medicine, is extremely low for the AYA generation when compared with other generations2. 3. Public subsidy system for medical services for young generations, e.g. pediatric chronic specific disease subsidy system, doesn’t apply for patients aged older than 20, while public long-term care insurance doesn’t apply for patients aged younger than 40, either. It means patients in the AYA generation don’t have much social aid when it comes to long-term medical care.
Moreover, the number of cancer patients in the AYA generation is comparatively small, which results in a fact that cancer treatments to meet the above-mentioned features haven’t been developed yet and they are not integrated well enough. Therefore, with the “AYA Generation Ward” prepared for the specific needs of the patients in this generation, the optimal cancer treatment and care will be offered until the day when they leave the ward and get back to their own lives, as the goal of the ward remains as offering the “best-suited medical care for the AYA generation.”
1. AYA generation: Adolescent and Young Adult. The definition of the word varies, but in most cases, it covers people from 15 to 29 years old.
2. Average Annual Percent Change (AAPC) in 5-year Relative Survival for All Invasive Cancer, SEER 1975-1997: Cancer Epidemiology in Older Adolescents and Young Adults 15 to 29 Years of Age, 13, Figure 1.28.
