Young Canadians with cancer say they're falling through the cracks of a health-care system designed for older patients.

Adolescent and young adult cancer patients, survivors and cancer specialists are meeting at an international workshop in Toronto that started Thursday.

"They kind of don't believe that we do get cancer," said Frédérique Denis of Montreal, who was diagnosed with breast cancer last year at age 28 and finished treatment in January.Frédérique Denis was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 28. Doctors initially told her a lump probably meant nothing. (CBC)

Her doctor and a surgeon initially told her a lump probably meant nothing. "It's usually, 'Oh, it's nothing, it's nothing,' and it leads to delays in diagnosis."

Young people may also not seek medical help promptly, and health-care professionals may be less familiar with cancer symptoms in the young, workshop participants said.

"The average family practitioner will not see many young people with cancer and doesn't really think of cancer when they're making their diagnosis or differential diagnosis," Dr. Paul Rogers, a pediatric oncologist at BC Children's Hospital in Vancouver, said Thursday.

For those diagnosed with cancer, peer support is critical to counter feelings of isolation, said Mike Lang, a 25-year-old who was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma in 2008. During his treatment at a cancer centre in Calgary, it was hard being the youngest person, he said.

"Me and my wife felt very isolated, being only the young people that we saw in the Tom Baker [Cancer Centre]," Lang recalled. "Being able to connect with young people was the turning point in our journey."

Mike Lang's persistent cough was for a long time attributed to asthma until an X-ray revealed a grapefruit-sized tumour wrapped around his esophagus. (CBC)Lang saw a poster for a support group called Young Adult Cancer Canada that was running a retreat in Banff. Lang now runs kayaking and wilderness expeditions for other young people who've had cancer.

YACC founder Geoff Eaton, 34, of St. John's, is a survivor of bouts of acute myeloid leukemia at ages 22 and 25. He established the group to advocate change and help young adults with cancer deal with obstacles such as:

• Lack of peer support.
• Low rates of participation in clinical trials.
• Long-term side-effects of treatment.
• Long-term challenges such as issues of sexuality, infertility and relationships.
• Costs of travel, accommodation and lost work for people who are often starting out on their own.

Just 0.08 per cent of new cancer research spending in 2006 was focused on people age 15 to 39, Eaton said.

"We're not on the research agenda in this country," Eaton said. "How can we expect to have progress, whether it's survival or quality-of-life issues?"

Pathways within the cancer cells themselves as well as response to treatment differ depending on the age group. Young children, for example, tolerate chemotherapy much better than adults, and adolescents and young adults are in between, Rogers said.

Canadian cancer statistics show 85 per cent of young people with cancer survive, but they face a devastating interruption in their lives.

Participants at the workshop will brainstorm how to combat the issues they face.

The workshop runs until Saturday.