AYA-Team: Theresa Müller, Dr. Judith Lohse, Dr. Katharina Egger-Heidrich. Credit: Michael Kretzschmar, Universitätsklinikum Dresden

The cure rates for adolescents and young adults (aged 15 to 39) with cancer are high. However, the intensive therapies required to achieve a cure carry the risk of long-term side effects for those affected. Due to the variety of diagnoses and therapies, there is currently little data on which individual follow-up care is relevant to young adults for ensuring their long-term physical and mental health and quality of life.

A review now compiled by an interdisciplinary team led by physicians and psychologists from the University Hospitals of Leipzig and Dresden and the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT/UCC) Dresden, analyzes over 13, 000 publications covering this topic. From this, scientists extracted 32 recommendations for long-term, efficient, and tailored follow-up care for young patients. The study is published in the journal Cancer Treatment Reviews.

While individualized follow-up care for patients is already well established in the field of pediatric oncology, there is still no systematically compiled overview of the long-term effects of cancer treatment in adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with cancer.

The recently published review aims to close this knowledge gap. The impetus came from the consortium behind the LE-Na review, which has been running since 2023 and focuses on the expansion, evaluation, and implementation of Germany-wide long-term follow-up care structures for children and adolescents who had cancer.

"This literature review was conducted by an interdisciplinary team of oncologists, psychologists, a pulmonologist, and a gynecologist. It is intended as a guide for practicing oncologists and general practitioners. It can also serve as a basis for further clinical trials in this under-researched area, " explains lead author Dr. Katharina Egger-Heidrich, specialist in internal medicine, hematology, and oncology, and head of internal medicine at the outpatient transition clinic at Dresden University Hospital.

Cancer Incidence in Adolescents and Young Adults in Europe. Downloaded from Cancer TODAY . Credit: Cancer Treatment Reviews (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.ctrv.2025.102992

"Tailored long-term follow-up care is designed to maintain the health and quality of life of former patients in the long term. We can avoid unnecessary examinations and detect possible secondary diseases at an early stage. Especially young patients often suffer from psychological stress after recovery from cancer. We need to take this into account in our treatment, " she adds.

At the Dresden site, services for young cancer patients are constantly being developed. For example, young patients between the ages of 16 and 28 who are treated at the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT/UCC) in Dresden are assigned an AYA Guide in their age group, who can also organize contact with other young people with cancer. This dialog is often difficult in everyday hospital life, as the number of patients in this age group is relatively small and they are either accommodated in the children's ward with much younger patients or in the adult ward with older people.

"Our ultimate goal is to open our own AYA ward where young patients aged 15 and older can be treated together. This will allow them to benefit from the cutting-edge medical care available at the center while also receiving optimal psychological and social support, " says Egger-Heidrich.

The outpatient transition clinic, a collaboration between the Clinic for Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, Medical Clinic I, and the Sonnenstrahl association, already serves as a point of contact for cancer patients who reach adulthood during their treatment as well as for all adolescents and young adults who require individual follow-up care after completing their treatment. Here, young patients are supported in managing the structured transition from pediatric oncology treatment to adult medicine and in actively shaping their own follow-up care.

"Through holistic outpatient follow-up care, we want to identify long-term side effects and relapses as quickly as possible so that we can take effective action, " says Dr. Judith Lohse, pediatric director of the outpatient transition clinic.

More information: Katharina Egger-Heidrich et al, Long-term surveillance recommendations for young adult cancer survivors, Cancer Treatment Reviews (2025). DOI: 10.1016/j.ctrv.2025.102992