The seminar for the presentation of the 9th Integrated Research Action Program (PAIR), dedicated to cancers in children, adolescents, and young adults, was held on March 19, 2024, in Paris.
The Integrated Research Action Programs (PAIR), launched in 2009 in partnership between the National Cancer Institute (INCa), the League Against Cancer, and the ARC Foundation for Cancer Research, aim to support all dimensions and research questions related to cancer within the scope of the pathology. In 2016, the funders wished to intensify efforts on the origins, management, and consequences of pediatric cancers, which affect approximately 1,850 children and 450 adolescents each year. Three projects were supported under the pediatric PAIR framework between 2016 and 2023, amounting to a total of over €5 million.
Claire Poulalhon, a medical epidemiologist in the EPICEA team, represented the “START: life after cancer in childhood and adolescence; better understanding and managing it through long-term follow-up” project, alongside coordinator Charlotte Demoor-Godschmidt (University Hospital of Angers). Claire Poulalhon outlined the major challenges of monitoring a growing population (nearly 40,000 individuals since 2000) with a survival rate exceeding 80% at 5 years, but at high risk of lifelong complications.
She presented the establishment of the COHOPER follow-up cohort derived from the National Registry of Childhood Cancers (RNCE), particularly the national survey conducted at the end of 2021 among 7,000 young adults as part of the PAIR. The initial descriptive results and ongoing detailed analyses on the health, quality of life, lifestyle, and socio-professional integration of participants were also presented.