Young Adult Cancer Program | Cincinnati Children's

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07/18/23

http://www.cincinnatichildrens.org/ya

"This is a forgotten group of people. Like, we think about the little kids, and we think about the adults, but we don't really think about the young adults. Cincinnati sees that."

Robin Norris, MD, MS, Co-Director, Young Adult Cancer Program:
"Only part of our job is to get rid of the cancer and get rid of the cancer for good. The other, and possibly more important job, for some, is to help people live their lives and live their lives the way they want to."

Olivia Frias, RN, Fertility Patient Navigator: "We are able to come together to really understand our patients — that whole mind and body and overall picture and the dynamic of each situation. You know, what does their family life look like? Do they have siblings? Do they have a significant other?"

Chase Budurka, Lymphoma patient: "They get it. They don't just want to fit into a, I'm gonna use the word, 'niche.' It's a family that wants to take care of you from start to finish, no matter where you are, what age you are."

Tylin Anderson, Sarcoma patient: "Before being diagnosed, I had just went back to school. And I worked at Children's full-time during the day, and I wifed and momed in the evening. That was my life, and it was busy enough."

Julia Gardner, Leukemia patient: "And obviously, you don't know who's good for oncology until you need to know who's good for oncology. And then, once we found out how great they were when we got there."

Budurka: "It was unbelievable to know that a hospital that takes care of so many, um, could literally pencil you in at a moment's notice."

Joseph Pressey, MD, Co-Director, Young Adult Cancer Program: "We recognize that those first few weeks to months can be very important to outcome. A lot of the therapy is fairly standard. Where we have a little bit more opportunity to work with the patient in terms of finding a therapy or finding a group of therapies for that patient really has to do with those patients who have recurrent or refractory tumors where they have come to us and they're seeking a clinical trial."

By using innovative and cutting-edge treatment therapies, young adults at Cincinnati Children's receive customized care to combat their cancer.

Dr. Norris: "We will treat you. If you're not tolerating, we don't blindly follow a recipe. We treat our patients how they're tolerating things, how their cancer is responding, not just what a book says."

Dr. Pressey: "I think we have a very well-established young adult oncology program with lots of resources, including fertility."

Frias: "It's not something that comes to the front of our mind when we're thinking of cancer and dealing with a diagnosis, and so we really want to think about the future."

Gardner: "For me, they went through and they're like: 'You know what? We looked at your treatment. We think that it's pretty low-risk of it affecting your fertility. They were able to do some tests beforehand to kind of get my baseline. And now that I'm done with treatment, they're still following me. And they will follow me until I get pregnant."

Dr. Pressey: "We recognize that young adults are often going through a lot of transitions. A cancer diagnosis on top of that can be very overwhelming."

Our team includes psychologists, social workers, school interventionists, holistic health specialists and others who specialize in helping young adults and their families manage challenges a cancer diagnosis may bring. We provide support, from diagnosis to survivorship and help people get back to what matters most."

Dr. Pressey: "Psychologists can also work with patients' parents, their spouses, their siblings or their children."

Budurka: "Obviously, it's not just the patient that's affected, it's the entire support system."

Gardner: "They treat every patient like you're special."

Anderson: "Just living life, and spending time with family, it's absolutely most important to me. It is."

Budurka: "Life is great. Life is great. It's been a roller coaster to get to this point, and I'm sure there's plenty of ups and downs to go, but being right here and working with Cincinnati Children's, you're in a great place. And if you haven't found it yet, you're on your way to it."