Teen Cancer America

Simon Davies

Simon Davies, the Executive Director of Teen Cancer America, has a wealth of experience in the hospital and healthcare industry. He is highly skilled in non-profit organizations, event planning, strategic planning, marketing strategy, and management. Additionally, Davies excels in business development and holds an honorary Doctor of Education degree from Coventry University.  

Advancing Cancer Care for Teens and Young Adults

When Roger Daltrey, the lead singer of the legendary British Rock Band, founded Teen Cancer America with rock partner Pete Townshend in 2013, it was on the back of two decades of success with their British charity Teenage Cancer Trust. Embracing the concept of combining pediatric and adult cancer medicine to these entrepreneurial yet often conservative shores was going to be challenging.

This underserved group of teens and young adults, with poorer outcomes than their younger and older counterparts, suffer primarily from rare and difficult-to-treat cancers.  Their cancers can be adversely affected by the growth spurts and hormonal changes that are common to this age.

There is evidence of drugs, mostly researched and developed for the very young or very old, being less effective with this age group. The charity now has 62 adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer programs across the country and there has been a ‘relative’ (but could do better) increase in AYA cancer research that will help this group.

Despite this progress, one of the most common terms in the cancer journeys of these young people is late or misdiagnosed.

Why?

Young people are in part to blame. They are, as we all know, the least likely to take themselves to see a doctor or share a health concern with a parent. However, there are other more significant reasons such as the lack experience of front-line physicians who just don’t see that many cancers in the young during a whole career.

“The development of cancer vaccines and the use of AI in diagnostics are already making a significant impact, offering hope for more effective and personalized treatments for young cancer patients.”

Symptoms appear that could be something more common. Bone cancers, for example, where a painful limb is like growing pains or sports injuries; leukemic weight loss and exhaustion which is not unlike a ‘fasting’ teen; brain tumor headaches like a migraine or a stress and anxiety related condition, can all make diagnosis challenging. 

So, this new era of research that can identify cancers at an early stage and science that is going even further by predicting susceptibility to cancer is the most exciting news for decades:

* Liquid Biopsies, for example, are among the most dynamic, enabling identification of cancer type and location at a very early stage. Allowing treatments to be directed to specific areas is dramatically reducing the toxic effects of the old 'shotgun approach' of traditional chemotherapy.

* Cancer vaccine development is already having an impact in certain cancers, even being able to tackle metastatic disease with individually designed vaccine payloads.

* The use of AI in diagnostics such as spotting cancers in scans and x-rays that the human eye of the most experienced professional could miss.

* Understanding the importance of the microbiome and the way in which the gut itself could play a preventive role.

These are just a few that I know, and I am sure there is much more to come in this unprecedented age of cancer research. But will we respond appropriately to take advantage of these breakthroughs and ensure accessibility and equity in health?

HPV Vaccines have been around for two decades, and they are now proven to prevent a suite of cancers, not just cervical cancer. But in the US, the take up is abysmal and there is no national health policy to make HPV vaccines an ‘opt out’ option instead of the current ‘opt in.’

Public and physician education is severely lacking and the US now lags other nations, some of whom have virtually eradicated these cancers. What a missed opportunity and a waste of young lives!

Similarly, screening for breast and colorectal cancers must wait until the cancer rates and deaths mount and move down the ages before access is given.

Insurance companies, despite the enormous savings early diagnosis will bring in the long term are reluctant to give access to new testing because of short term costs. Governments are even slower to act.

And so, amid the excitement I feel for what is possible, I have genuine fears that we will once again let our people down. And as usual the most vulnerable in our society will suffer whilst those with wealth and good insurance will have the pick of the best prevention and survival options.

So, I ‘throw down the gauntlet’ to all stakeholders. Seize these golden opportunities and let’s turn this around. In the words of Roger Daltrey, “good health for our young should be a right not a privilege.”

And that goes for all of us!