Innovations in Digital Health and Extended Reality for Adolescent and Young Adult Oncology

Adolescents and young adults (15–39) with cancer face unique challenges related to development, identity, mental health, and survivorship, while often receiving care within systems designed either for children or older adults. At the same time, these patients are digital natives, having been born or brought up in an age of digital technology and therefore familiar with computers and the internet from an early age. These technologies, including telehealth, mobile health, artificial intelligence, and extended reality (virtual, augmented, and mixed reality) are rapidly transforming how care is delivered, experienced, and evaluated. They offer a unique and innovative approach to improve patient care and outcomes through social connection, behavior change, therapeutic interventions, and assistance in navigating an ever more complicated healthcare system.The goal of this Research Topic is to define how digital health and extended reality can be thoughtfully, intentionally, and equitably leveraged to address gaps in AYA oncology. By bringing together interdisciplinary and international research across clinical, behavioral, technical, and implementation domains, this collection seeks to identify best practices, emerging models, and real-world lessons that move the field beyond proof of concept toward sustainable impact. The field is poised to more powerfully leverage statistically robust and meaningful studies to advance care.We aim to highlight work that integrates seamlessly into care pathways and advances equity, ensuring that digital and XR-enabled innovations improve outcomes not only in theory, but in the lived experience of adolescents and young adults with cancer. At the same time, we encourage critical examination of potential challenges and unintended consequences of digital health approaches, including risks such as misinformation, isolation, or disruptions to the patient-provider relationship, to ensure these innovations are implemented responsibly and effectively.We also welcome perspectives that examine how these approaches intersect with broader care systems, including the role of primary care providers in supporting adolescents and young adults with cancer.This Research Topic aims to bring together multidisciplinary work on how digital health and extended reality can improve outcomes for patients diagnosed as adolescents or young adults. We welcome contributions on psychosocial and supportive care, symptom management, care management and adherence, survivorship and transitions of care, clinical education, and program implementation in real-world AYA oncology settings. Submissions may include feasibility and efficacy trials, mixed methods and qualitative studies, implementation and health services research, as well as perspectives, guidelines, and policy or ethics-focused articles. Particular interest will be given to studies addressing equity and “techquity,” including access, usability, and social determinants of health in digital and XR-enabled AYA oncology care.If you were not directly invited by the Topic Editors but wish to submit, you are welcome to do so; however, please contact us at adolescentmedicine@frontiersin.org before submitting and wait for our confirmation that your manuscript is within scope. Topic editors: Asher Marks, Katie Devine Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/78949/innovations-in-digital-health-and-extended-reality-for-adolescent-and-young-adult-oncology