Life After Lung Cancer: Supporting Young Adults Through the Unique Challenges of Survivorship скачать в хорошем качестве

Life After Lung Cancer: Supporting Young Adults Through the Unique Challenges of Survivorship

Stephen Liu, MD, of the Georgetown University Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center, joined Cancer Nursing Today at the 2025 International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer (IASLC) World Conference on Lung Cancer (WCLC) to moderate a panel focused on ALK-positive (ALK+) non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), as well as recent data released during the conference. The roundtable panel of multidisciplinary experts included perspectives from Mary Duffy, AM, RSCN, RGN, RSM, of the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Shirish Gadgeel, MD, of the Henry Ford Cancer Institute, and Laura Macke, MS, FNP-C, of the MedStar Georgetown Lombardi Comprehensive Cancer Center. In the eighth segment of this roundtable series, the experts covered the advent of survivorship in advanced ALK+ NSCLC, how survivorship has evolved, and the importance of considering patient needs, such as fertility, in various age groups. “I started my lung cancer career a long time ago, and the notion of having people with stage IV lung cancer surviving is to be celebrated and will always continue to be celebrated,” Ms. Duffy said. “We have to acknowledge what those survivorship issues are for patients and do some research to find out what that means for them. I was telling Shirish earlier on, we did a very small study a couple of years ago with a group called CAM, Cancer and Living Meaningfully, which is assisted by Dr. Gary Rodin of Princess Margaret Cancer Centre in Toronto. It was really amazing what the findings of that were and what we were surprised by.” Dr. Gadgeel also discussed his experiences with survivorship in younger patients with cancer and how their needs differ from the needs of patients in other age groups, particularly in the context of family dynamics, family planning, and fertility. “I've had the privilege of taking care of a patient who is 24 years old and has stage IV ALK-positive lung cancer, and while on treatment with alectinib, delivered two healthy babies,” Dr. Gadgeel said. “We don't have enough follow-up on these babies to be absolutely certain that they're going to be fine when they're young adults or after that. I think the reason I bring that up is that there are issues, such as fertility, that we may not consider in our lung cancer patients when you take the entire lung cancer population [into consideration], because generally they're older. So, there are issues in this population that are somewhat unique, and I think we need to be cognizant of that.”