Engagement and experience with cancer-related follow-up care among young adult survivors of childhood cancer after transfer to adult care

Young adult survivors (yas) of childhood cancer require annual adult-focused, cancer-related follow-up given their risk for late effects of treatment. this study describes perception of and engagement with adult-focused, cancer-related follow-up care and general health care among yas formally transferred to adult care from pediatric survivorship care. yas transferred from pediatric survivorship care in the prior 1–5 years completed measures indicating engagement with cancer-related follow-up care, other health care utilization, content of communication by providers, quality of cancer-related care, and satisfaction with health care in the prior year. eighty yas (m age = 27.7 years, m time since diagnosis = 10.4 years) participated. just over half of yas surveyed (n = 44, 55 %) endorsed continuing cancer-related follow-up care since transfer. those with cancer-related follow-up endorsed seeing subspecialty survivorship providers (n = 16, 44 %) and primary care providers (n = 22, 50 %) or utilizing a shared care model (n = 6, 14 %). about a third of yas endorsed seeing subspecialists (n = 29, 36 %) or using other support services (n = 22, 27 %). yas-perceived content of communication varied significantly depending on care model with less cancer-related content being discussed by primary care providers, though perceived quality of cancer-related care and satisfaction with health care was generally favorable. yas report less than optimal engagement in cancer-related follow-up care and communication in their health care encounters. young adult survivors should receive anticipatory guidance about expectations for delivery and content of adult-focused cancer-related follow-up care.