Mental Health Status of Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Survivors

Background: As survival rates in TYA cancers continue to grow, research is increasingly focused on the potential risks of physical and psychological late effects in cancer survivors. Much of the research examining the presence of psychological late-effects and/or mental health conditions in an adolescent sample, either focus on TYAs who have survived cancers in childhood, or TYAs who are still in treatment. As such, there is no conclusive answer as to the average rates of prevalence within this sample.

Aims: The goal of this review is to systematically review the existing literature examining mental health outcomes in adolescents and young adults between the ages of 15 and 25.

Methods: 2233 potentially relevant papers were identified, and of these we sought the full-text reports of 19 articles.

Results: All 19 were excluded on the basis of not meeting the inclusion criteria.

Conclusions: There is a lack of evidence upon which to draw empirically valid conclusions regarding the incidence of mental health outcomes among adolescent and young adult cancer survivors. However, evidence presented from the ‘near-miss’ full-text articles indicate that there is the potential for a subset of cancer survivors to experience mental health outcomes in survivorship approaching/reaching clinically significant levels.