A life put on pause: an exploration of the health-related quality of life issues relevant to adolescents and young adults with cancer

Purpose: in recent years, the assessment of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) has been recognized as particularly informative to health care providers. For adolescents and young adults (AYAs), the impact of a cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatment is likely to be distinct from other age groups given the unique and complex physical and psychosocial challenges of this developmental phase. The objective of this study was to capture the HRQoL issues described by AYAs with cancer using thematic analysis.Methods: semi-structured interviews were carried out with 45 AYAs aged 14-25 years from 6 countries. Results: the most prevalent cancers presented were leukemia (n=12) and lymphoma (n=8).…