Sustaining Engagement Through Transitions in AYA Cancer Care: Technology, Behaviour, and Self-Management Across the Care Continuum

Adolescents and young adults (AYAs) living with cancer, or those that are long-term survivors, form a growing and medically complex population. Two distinct groups sit within this community: those diagnosed with cancer during adolescence or young adulthood (ages 15–39), and those who survived childhood cancer and are now navigating young adult life with its long-term consequences. Despite different trajectories, both groups share a critical common challenge: navigating and engaging with health systems during key transitions to meet their unique medical, psychosocial, and survivorship needs.

Nearly all survivors of childhood cancer will develop at least one long-term chronic health condition from their disease or its treatment. Yet continued engagement with survivorship care, including annual surveillance, health promotion, and psychosocial support, remains one of the field's most persistent unmet needs. Where transition programs are typically studied for how they are structured and governed at the health-system level, this Research Topic centers on the individual-level engagement mechanisms, behavioural, technological, and self-management strategies, that keep AYA patients and survivors connected to their care, before, during and after key transitions.

This Research Topic invites work that advances evidence-based solutions for healthcare engagement of AYAs across acute care and longitudinal survivorship. We are particularly interested in:
• Evidence-based engagement strategies to promote longitudinal care for AYA-aged
cancer and bone marrow transplant (BMT) survivors
• Approaches to support key transitions during and around treatment for AYAs with cancer or treated with a BMT that prioritize psychosocial, age-appropriate care
• Strategies to improve retention and sustained engagement of AYA cancer/BMT survivors in longitudinal survivorship research cohorts and registries
• Clinical workflows and tools (e.g., telehealth, patient portals, reminder and tracking
systems) that support day-to-day engagement in acute and survivorship care for AYA
cancer/BMT patients and survivors
• Evaluation of technology-supported interventions embedded within existing acute AYA
cancer/BMT care and survivorship programs.

We welcome Original Research, Feasibility and Efficacy Trials, Mixed-Methods and Qualitative Studies, Implementation and Health Services Research, Systematic Reviews, Perspectives, Case Reports, and Policy-focused articles. Contributions are encouraged from clinical, behavioural, technological, and health systems domains, with particular relevance to program design and development, psychosocial and financial barriers to care, and technology-supported engagement, with emphasis on equity and on digital and mobile health tools that support self-management, self-efficacy, and skill-building.

This Research Topic complements existing Research Topics in the journal focusing on the structural and policy dimensions of paediatric-to-adult transition (e.g., global models of transition governance and equity) by shifting focus to the individual-level tools and strategies that sustain engagement for patients during and after cancer therapy.

If you were not directly invited by the Topic Editors but wish to submit, you are welcome to do so; however, please contact us at adolescentmedicine@frontiersin.org before submitting and wait for our confirmation that your manuscript is within scope.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: AYA oncology, childhood cancer survivors, survivorship care, patient engagement, mobile health, digital health, care transitions, self-efficacy, longitudinal follow-up, telehealth, health equity, psychosocial care, technology-driven interventions

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.