There is a group of amazing folks congregating in Austin, Texas as we speak for the annual LIVESTRONG Young Adult Alliance meeting. The Alliance is a group of organizations brought together that serve people with cancer ages 15-40 and are filling a drastic void in cancer care and support.

Young adults are often the “forgotten” patients. They don’t fit in pediatrics and they don’t fit in with older patients. They are at the prime of their lives; going to school, dating, getting married, starting careers, having kids. When these 70,000 people each year are diagnosed they have very little support, research that tells their doctors how much and what type of treatment is best, how to deal with lack of insurance coverage or how to preserve their fertility. There’s a void. So much of a void that this particular age group is seeing declines in survival rates as pediatric and older adults see increases in survival. Young adults are dying from cancer and this is unacceptable.

In 2005, LIVESTRONG along with the National Cancer Institute came together to find out why this age group is seeing this decline in survival rates and what could be done about it. A report, recommendations on how to fix the issues and ways to implement these recommendations came out from this partnership in 2006 and the LIVESTRONG Young Adult Alliance was born!

Young Adult Alliance members in Austin this week are meeting to discuss some important topics: updates on the basic science of young adult cancers, awareness issues, screening and diagnosis, transition into survivorship, mental health, patient education, standards of care, health care policies, genetics and outreach. On that list of really important topics includes how to use social media to reach, inform and support young adult survivors. It’s a packed schedule, but the collaboration that comes out of this meeting will help those 15-40 affected by cancer.

Good luck to our presenters and attendees. For a listing of LIVESTRONG YAA members, visit www.livestrong.org/yaa For Young Adult focused cancer resources please go to www.livestrong.org/cancersupport.