2023 Survivorship Prize Awarded to City of Hope Long Term Follow-Up Program
We’re so proud to name the Childhood, Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) Cancer Survivorship Program at City of Hope, one of the largest cancer research and treatment organizations in the United States, as the recipient of the 2023 Survivorship Champion’s Prize. The $10,000 Champion’s Prize is awarded annually to a group, program, or institution making significant advances in programs and services to provide lifelong health maintenance for survivors of childhood cancers.
The City of Hope Childhood, Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Survivorship Program was selected based on their multidisciplinary approach to improving the quality of health and well-being of survivors by helping them prevent, identify, and manage late effects from their treatment. Our selection committee was also impressed with City of Hope’s creation of the Southern California Pediatric and Adolescent Cancer Survivorship Consortium, which promotes research and evidence-based care in the ethnically diverse population of childhood cancer survivors throughout Southern California and will facilitate expansion of the geographic reach of City of Hope’s services.
There are approximately 500,000 survivors of childhood and adolescent cancer in the United States who face serious lifelong health risks as a result of their cancer and its treatment. By the age of 50, more than 99 percent of childhood cancer survivors have developed a chronic health problem, and 96% have experienced a severe or life-threatening condition caused by the toxicity of their treatment.
Despite these complex health challenges, half of survivors surveyed by the Children’s Cancer Cause in the summer of 2023 don’t have a survivorship care plan in place to help navigate their long-term health needs. In this Annual Survivor Survey, 40 percent reported significant concerns about fertility, and 70 percent have high anxiety about the threat of relapse or a second cancer.
“With the growing population of childhood, adolescent, and young adult cancer survivors, it is imperative that we create an infrastructure to provide lifelong survivorship-specific late effects screening and education. We are honored to be the recipients of this year’s Survivorship Champion’s Prize, which will enable us to develop a comprehensive, scalable database to engage survivors throughout their survivorship journeys,” said Rusha Bhandari, MD, MS, assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Department of Population Sciences and medical director of the Childhood, Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Survivorship Program at City of Hope.
The Survivorship Champion’s Prize is a component of the Stewart Initiative for Childhood Cancer Survivors, an educational program of the Children’s Cancer Cause. Since its inception in 2020, the Survivorship Champion’s Prize has awarded $85,000 to a total of thirteen prestigious survivorship programs across the country, enabling these institutions to address disparities in access to care, enhance and expand healthcare transition programs, improve technology, and purchase tablets and books for clinic patients.
City of Hope’s Childhood, Adolescent and Young Adult (AYA) Cancer Survivorship Program joins Texas Children’s Cancer and Hematology Centers Long-Term Survivor Program (2020), the Aflac Cancer and Blood Disorders Center of Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta (2021), and Phoenix Children’s Hospital Survivorship Program (2022) as previous Champion’s Prize awardees.