Sink or Collaborate: How the Immersive Model Has Helped Address Typical Adolescent and Young Adult Barriers at a Single Institution and Kept the Adolescent and Young Adult Program Afloat

The unique needs of adolescent and young adult (AYA) oncology patients have been identified through research and well described in the literature.1–4 Defined as individuals aged 15–39 years, these patients benefit from age-appropriate multidisciplinary care with attention to psychosocial, fertility, financial, and physical effects of cancer, from diagnosis through survivorship. These are termed the pillars of AYA care. With the goal of improving outcomes for the 72,000 AYA patients diagnosed with cancer every year in the United States, AYA programs are being developed. Organizations such as Teen Cancer America (TCA, www.teencanceramerica.org) and Critical Mass (criticalmass.org) provide advocacy, collaboration, and resources for personnel, as well as physical space for AYA patients at major medical centers. Early reports of successful programs have been mitigated more recently by recognition of real barriers to successful program development, prompting an ongoing national dialogue. This article seeks to examine our institution's model and offer solutions to overcome real and perceived barriers to optimal AYA oncology care. Specifically, we examine our institution's model that involves a pediatric oncologist AYA champion employed within an adult cancer center, which we term the Immersive Model. This differs from other models that typically separate pediatric and adult oncology by building and department or medical group. Traditionally, AYA programs have been created to bridge the gap between pediatric and adult centers, often using acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) care as a model. Pediatric oncologists would expand the age of patients seen upward, to provide direct care or participate in tumor boards with adult medicine colleagues. There is a data-driven consensus in the pediatric oncology community that so-called pediatric-inspired regimens improve outcomes for AYA patients compared with standard adult approaches for ALL and a perception that the medical oncology world has been slow to universally adopt these regimens with variation in levels of adoption across centers.5–8 Controversy regarding the optimal treatment for ALL continues at many centers, causing AYA program growth to be hindered. Moffitt Cancer Center (MCC) is a National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center based in Tampa, Florida that is uniquely organized by multidisciplinary disease teams rather than the more traditional model of departments of medicine, surgery, and other specialties. Thus, it is common for physicians to report to chairs with different, medical, or surgical, for example, board certifications and training than their own. The AYA program at MCC is led by a pediatric oncologist who reports directly to the chair of the Sarcoma Program, who is a surgical oncologist. MCC does not have a pediatric oncology practice and does not routinely care for patients under 15 years of age, although disease-specific expertise may be provided on a case-by-case basis, with administrative approval. MCC sees ∼16,000 new patients each year, with over 1500 of these new patients ranging from 15 to 39 years of age. This means that 100–125 unique AYA patients visit MCC each day, and 10% of inpatient beds are occupied by AYA patients. This volume prompted an administrative decision to contribute hospital resources to AYA patients, with coordinator support. Clinically, the Immersive Model began at MCC with a pediatric oncologist from All Children's Hospital providing care to sarcoma patients up to 40 years of age with select diagnoses. The program continues to collaborate with Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital in a variety of ways, including several ongoing research collaborations and multiple physicians with clinical privileges at both facilities. Other groups, bringing broad and necessary expertise, began participating in the program (Fig. 1). MCC has grown to a multidisciplinary AYA Committee that is structured with five subcommittees that focus on: fertility, research, patient education, social events, and psychosocial issues. The entire group meets monthly in an open forum to share communication and discuss opportunities, provide updates on new and ongoing committee initiatives, and review factors that facilitate and obstruct local AYA care. Open in a separate window FIG. 1. AYA Program Organizational Chart: The AYA program incorporates many disciplines and areas of expertise together across traditional cancer center departments. AYA, adolescent and young adult.