Now that you’ve joined the Young Adult Cancer Club…pretty cool club, right? (yuck!)…you know, better than anyone around you probably, what AYA means. AYA, or Adolescent and Young Adult, has been taken by the oncology community to denote those survivors diagnosed with cancer between the ages of 15-39.
Looking for a little bit more than that though? Want to know where these ages come from in the research? Look no further than this article written by a young adult cancer survivor and researcher, Ximena.
“[Researchers] argue that creating research protocols and programs for those with cancer ages 15-39 is a far too generalized approach in that it does not take into account the person’s developmental stage. A 15-year-old who is starting to explore their identity and separate from their parents, for example, will have far different needs than a 35-year-old who is caring for their young children.”