Cancer in teenagers is often diagnosed late, says cancer charity

The Teenage Cancer Trust, which sets up specialist care units around the country, says the needs of teenagers are being ignorned.

The Trust has announced it will fund the world's first Chair in Adolescent Cancer, in a bid to conduct more research.

It coincides with statistics showing the rate of teenage cancer increased at an average of 1.2% a year since 1979.

Call for awareness

It is estimated that cancer affects around 2,000 teenagers in the UK each year.

Data analysis by Professor Jill Birch, UK Professorial Research Fellow at Manchester University, found that, although cancer in those aged 13-24 was still rare, the overall rate had risen from 15.4 cases per 100,000 people to 19.8 in the space of 21 years.

The most common cancers among people aged 13 to 24 were leukaemia and lymphoma, with malignant brain tumours and carcinomas also making up a significant proportion.

Professor Birch said environmental and lifestyle factors, such as increased exposure to sun and tobacco smoke, are likely to be major contributors.

Genetic mutations probably only account for a small proportion of cancers.

According to the Teenage Cancer Trust (TCT), young adults also suffer from late diagnosis and are denied participation in clinical trials.

Mrs Myrna Whiteson, chairman of the Trust, said "cancer is the most common cause of non-accidental death in teens and young adults in the UK."

"We have been spending millions of pounds building and equipping specialist teenage units, lobbying and generally trying to drag cancer services for teens and young adults into the 21st century. Yet successive government have done nothing."

The Teenage Cancer Trust is hoping to enhance awareness and treatment options with the appointment of a Chair in Adolescent Cancer in June this year.

The appointment will cost the charity around �250,000 a year over the next decade.

Dr Adrian Whiteson, joint Chairman of the Teenage Cancer Trust, said the Chair will look at the causes of teenage cancer, help to initiate studies, and make the medical profession look at young people as a separate entity.

We would love to get government funding, but at the moment teenagers are not a priority for them Dr Adrian Whiteson, joint Chairman, Teenage Cancer Trust

"Hopefully the Chair will increase the public's awareness of the desperate needs of teenagers," he told BBC News Online.

"We would love to get government funding, but at the moment teenagers are not a priority for them."

Lack of care

TCT say one of the biggest problems for teenagers with cancer is the lack of specific care.

"They get shuttled between the vastly different specialities of child and adult oncology," says Mrs Myrna Whiteson, chairman of TCT.

According to figures from the charity, there are now more people in the 15 to 24 age bracket with cancer than there are children with cancer.

Labour MP Dr Ian Gibson, chairman of the Commons Science and Technology Committee, said the time has come to for a concerted approach to teenage cancer.

Dr Gibson, who heads an All Party Working Group on Cancer, is calling a meeting with the Health Minister and setting up an inquiry into cancer services.

"There will now be parliamentary pressure to fund the TCT."

A spokesperson for the Department of Health told BBC News Online it is providing funding through the National Cancer Research Network to "enable more teenage patients to enter trials of the latest treatments."

It will also look at how young adults can "participate in the design of health services which are centred around their particular needs."