According to the National Cancer Institute, roughly 70,000 adolescents and young adults (ages 15-39) are diagnosed with cancer each year in the United States.
For those 70,000 individuals, their lives - their hopes, dreams, goals - are all too often derailed by this horrible illness. Many of these patients will survive the disease, but recent studies show that their challenges are just beginning.
A new analysis, which used data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) 2009 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, suggests that Survivors of adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancers have worse health and unhealthier behaviors than people without a history of cancer.