Improving survival for adolescents and young adults with haematologic malignancies

Dr Michael Roth, Professor of Paediatrics, University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Centre, US, gave a state-of-the-art lecture at the Haematology Association of Ireland Annual Meeting 2026 about the opportunities to improve “health, quality-of-life, and survival” for adolescents and young adults (AYAs) with haematologic malignancies.

Dr Roth specialises in caring for children and adolescents with leukaemia and lymphoma. He is the Medical Director of Cancer Survivorship and Co-Director of the AYA and Childhood Cancer Survivorship Programmes at the centre.

His talk focused specifically on AYAs in Texas and the US and the need to improve outcomes among the cohort.

AYAs are defined by the US National Cancer Institute as patients aged between 15 and 39 years and 88,000 AYAs are diagnosed with cancer every year across the nation. There are over two million AYA survivors of cancer in the US, Dr Roth stated.

While there have been improvements in overall five-year relative survival rates in recent years, there are persistently poor survival outcomes for some cancers among AYAs in the US. These include acute myeloid leukaemia, acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, osteosarcoma, and colorectal cancer.

Dr Roth highlighted data from the Texas Cancer Registry which showed that socio-economic status, geographic location, and race impact cancer survival rates.

The data also illustrated that Black and Hispanic patients, for example, consistently have poorer survival rates across several cancer types, Dr Roth said.

For the past 10 years, Dr Roth has focused on improving access and successful enrolment to clinical trials for AYA cancer patients in a bid to improve survival rates.

Dr Roth concluded that, despite significant progress in treating AYAs with cancer over the past two decades, short- and long-term health and survival outcomes could be further improved, particularly for the cancer subtypes he highlighted as having persistently poor survival rates.

He argued that survivorship care needed to be standardised for AYA cancer patients.

Dr Roth added that local and national efforts were required to address disparities and improve quality-of-life and survival among the cohort.

These efforts should include increasing the number and breadth of AYA health-related quality-of-life and toxicity intervention trials, and expanding support services to AYAs across cancer care settings.