Timely diagnosis and treatment of childhood and adolescent cancer: Challenges and opportunities

Timely diagnosis and treatment of cancer are key tenets ofquality care, with important implications for patient outcomes and overallwellbeing. Children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to delays incare due to patient-, clinical-, and health-system-level factors. We aimed to measure the diagnostic interval in childrendiagnosed with cancer in Québec, Canada, between 2012 and 2022, using adata-driven approach. As a complementary exploratory aim, we reviewed theliterature to identify barriers and enablers to survivorship care amongsurvivors of pediatric cancer. We identified 2927 children and adolescents with cancer inour population-based cohort and observed differences in diagnostic delay byage, cancer type, diagnosis period, and rurality. Barriers and enablers tosurvivorship care also operated at the patient, clinician, and health-systemlevels, although their relative importance likely varies across survivorship.Improving childhood cancer care requires attention not onlyto treatments, but also to the diagnostic and post-treatment phases of care.Identifying barriers across the care continuum may help guide interventions toimprove access and quality in pediatric oncology.