Assistant Professor Christabel Cheung, PhD, MSW, and an international team of colleagues led by Dr. Olga Husson at The Netherlands Cancer Institute published a new paper in Journal of the National Cancer Institute. This commentary reflects upon and asserts the need for the development of a Core Outcome Set (COS) that offers an agreed minimum set of outcomes to be measured globally and routinely in oncology research and clinical practice. The authors present recommendations for a COS tailored to reflect the personal and societal costs of cancer that are uniquely experienced in the adolescent and young adult (AYA) patient population – diagnosed with cancer between ages 15-39 years. They further suggest that a COS for AYAs would facilitate better pooling of research data and the implementation of high-quality healthcare registries, which by benchmarking not only nationally, but also internationally, may ultimately improve the value of the care given to these underserved cancer patients.
Citation (open access):
Olga Husson, PhD, Bryce B Reeve, PhD, Anne-Sophie Darlington, PhD, Christabel K Cheung, PhD, MSW, Samantha Sodergren, PhD, Winette T A van der Graaf, MD, PhD, John M Salsman, PhD, Next Step for Global Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology: A Core Patient-Centered Outcome Set, JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 2021, djab217, https://doi.org/10.1093/jnci/djab217