When you hear ‘skin cancer’ you probably think about older adults or people in Australia - it’s normally a cancer that follows years of exposure to sun and the average patient is 65 years old when they are diagnosed.
However, it might be more common than you think. Skin cancer, also known as melanoma, is one of the most common types of cancer in teenagers and young adults. Just because adults get it too, doesn’t mean that young people, aged 16-24 years old, can just be treated like adults. They have different risk factors, and often have the cancer develop in different areas to adults.
Another important difference between adults and young people is how they feel. If you cast your mind back to when you were that age, how do you think you would have coped with skin cancer? Perhaps you were starting your first job, heading to university, starting important exams, having your first relationship. How would cancer have changed your day-to-day life and interrupted your future plans?
Finding the answers
Dr Wendy McInally wants to find the answer to that question. In 2022, she started work on one of the first Teenagers and Young Adults with Cancer (TYAC) funded research projects, titled ‘What are young people and their significant others’ experiences of melanoma?’.
Dr Wendy McInally
Whilst all experiences matter, Wendy said that "young people with melanoma are often forgotten about in the mix of broad cancer research, because many of these patients might never be seen by a cancer specialist team. This disease is becoming a global concern as it now affects many young patients."
Wendy has been working with young people with melanoma for over 10 years, and is passionate about helping teenagers and young adults with skin cancer. In this project, Wendy will be interviewing 15 young people with melanoma, who will each also nominate a significant other, like a family member or partner, to discuss the impact that young person’s cancer had on them. The significant others will participate in focus groups. Having support is essential to young people going through cancer. However, most research into people’s experiences of melanoma currently focuses only on the patient. Wendy’s findings from the interviews and focus groups will help healthcare professionals, like doctors and nurses, understand the importance of significant others during and beyond treatment for skin cancer.
What do young people think?
To really understand young peoples’ experiences, Wendy needed a young person. Whilst she was doing her PhD, Wendy met Jack Brodie, a young skin cancer patient.
Jack Brodie
He was just 16 years old when diagnosed with melanoma but now, aged 26, is using his experiences as a consultant on Wendy’s project.
Jack said:
The diagnosis brought with it a real shock. Melanoma was completely off my radar. But somehow, one found itself firmly on my skin. It was really daunting. Sixteen and feeling somewhat indestructible, the diagnosis was a quick and harsh reminder of the realities of cancer. It's indiscriminate. Unforgiving. Horrible.
After his surgery and ‘all-clear’, Jack wanted to help make a difference for other young people with skin cancer.
He said, “That sense of shock that I felt at sixteen stayed with me and lingered long after my 'all clear' came along.
"I wanted to help Wendy because young people affected by cancer are not just patients. They have names, worries, friends and families. And they hopefully have lives that continue long after cancer.
"I hoped that I could bring that perspective to the research through my own personal experience, and now I work with Wendy to really understand how we can truly be of benefit to young people dealing with cancer today.”
What’s next?
So far, Wendy’s team are looking through all papers currently published about the experiences and needs of melanoma patients and their significant others. Wendy hopes to use the results of this review and the interviews to develop the teenage and young adult service within the UK.
Wendy has lots of plans for the results. She said:
We will be holding an event in London to share our findings. It will be an interactive workshop for our participants and for people involved in young people’s cancer care, where they can learn about and discuss the results. The findings will also be shared at conferences, in academic journals, and podcasts or webinars - we want to ensure the findings are shared as widely as possible.
Jack said, “When we think about a diagnosis, it can be easy to assume it's an individual struggle but, for a family or friend group, a diagnosis can represent a similar sense of disruption.
"In my own experience I saw that I was only ever as good as my sister, mum, or dad was doing. If they were sad. I was, inevitably, sad.
"The research allows those affected by cancer, both directly and indirectly, to voice their concerns and experiences of cancer care. If all goes well, the research should widen our understanding of how care should be conducted. For young people and for their support networks.”
If you want to learn more, you can read about Wendy's event, which brought together survivors and professionals to inform the next stage of her research.
Ellie Ellicott is CCLG’s Research Communication Executive.
She is using her lifelong fascination with science to share the world of childhood cancer research with CCLG’s fantastic supporters. You can find Ellie on X: @EllieW_CCLG
