"Summer is you": Adolescents and young adults with cancer sing about their desire for summer.

Creative spirit and art are used as part of the Youth Project in Milan, a program dedicated to adolescents and young adults (AYA) with cancer. The "Summer is you" music project involved 45 patients (15-26 years old): with professional help, the patients wrote music and lyrics, sang their song, and recorded a video clip, sharing with us not only their hopes and fears, but also their romantic encounters and their urge to travel (https://youtu.be/Q5FSCMUVg0E). This project exploited the power of music to bring young people with cancer together in a novel form of support that can complement the more conventional psychological approaches.

Tumorial: Video Tutorials Produced by Young Patients on the Youth Project to Voice Their Experiences.

Purpose: Adolescent and young adult patients of the Milan's Youth Project developed a new communication project aimed at young people with cancer: in a series of video tutorials called Tumorial, they talk about their day-to-day experiences, offering "survival tricks" to their peers. Methods: The project was developed during group meetings taking place every week in a dedicated room near the ward. Each meeting focused on a single topic and was led by the patients themselves, who talked about their experiences; staff members moderated the discussion and took notes, which was used as script for a video, recorded by one patient as a spokesperson. All the videos had English subtitles. Results: The project was implemented between March 2018 and June 2019 and involved 53 teenagers and young adults (15-27 years), 33 receiving treatment and 20 in follow-up when the project began. There were 23 video tutorials produced in all, with various topics, for example, school, sex, hair, privacy, social networks, fuck-ups to avoid, scars, ward companions. The videos are published on the Youth Project's YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR0EVeYMAjgJlN95tSc_iPA). Conclusion: This innovative approach to communication in the world of oncological disease in the young can be a useful tool as part of their course of care. It appears of great importance considering that social networks-and YouTube in particular-frequently provide unreliable or useless information. In making the project, patients told their innermost feelings, promoting cohesion among them. Patients and caregivers developed the project together in a significant example of cooperation.

Diary of a journey to a faraway galaxy.

This article describes a brief account written by a girl treated with chemotherapy and surgery for an ovarian germ cell tumor. The brief novel was conceived in the context of the Youth Project of Milan, dedicated to helping adolescent and young adult cancer patients socialize and express themselves through group activities that focus on art and creativity. It describes the scenery of a new galaxy and is replete with images and metaphors that recall the experience of receiving anticancer treatment, touching on emotional themes including desire, isolation, fear, and hope.

"What shall I do when I grow up?" Adolescents with cancer on the Youth Project in Milan play with their imagination and photography.

INTRODUCTION: Adolescents diagnosed with cancer have to temporarily stop pursuing several vital needs and making plans for the future. The Youth Project in Milan, Italy, focuses on such issues in young cancer patients' personal lives. Uncertainty about the future had already emerged in several artistic projects designed to help these patients voice their emotions. METHODS: We describe a project revolving around the question "What shall I do when I grow up?" Twenty-seven 15- to 26-year-old patients wrote a brief account of what they hoped to do as adults. Using theatrical costumes, they then dressed up in their chosen role for a photo shoot with a well-known professional photographer. The results were published in one of Italy's main national dailies. RESULTS: Participants reacted differently: some lightheartedly, others more seriously. They often expressed the wish to help others, desiring to return the support and protection they had received as patients. Another common theme concerned their need for normality. CONCLUSIONS: By writing about their dreams, these patients gave their doctors a glimpse of their inner world. The project proved an important complement to more conventional forms of psychosocial support and interaction with young patients.

Loop: there's no going back: A Graphic Novel by Adolescent Cancer Patients on the Youth Project in Milan.

The present paper describes the story of the development of a graphic novel-a story about superheroes-written by adolescent cancer patients on the Youth Project at the Istituto Nazionale Tumori in Milan (Italy). Nineteen patients from fifteen to twenty-five years old (fifteen receiving treatment for their cancer, four who had recently completed their treatments) participated in a four month creative writing laboratory managed by a professional teacher. The output from the writing laboratory was a written text that was used as the script for a graphic novel drawn by professional cartoonists and working together with the patients. Through their story, adolescent patients succeeded in voicing their dreams and fears. It was the adolescent patients themselves who explained how they had each tried to bring out the superhero inside them. This project describes the amazing powers of adolescents with cancer and opens a precious window on their inner world, enabling us to gain a better understanding of what they are really thinking and feeling through their own words.

"Christmas Balls": a Christmas carol by the adolescent cancer patients of the Milan Youth Project.

The Youth Project is a program developed at the Pediatric Oncology Unit at the Istituto Nazionale Tumori in Milan, dedicated to adolescents and young adults with cancer. Among its various goals, the Youth Project organizes structured creative activities with the support of professionals, with the objective of offering young people a new way to express their hopes and fears. This article describes a project centered around music: patients created a Christmas carol with the help of musicians and authors. The adolescents explained with their own words the meaning of the lyrics, telling the story of a Christmas spent in a cancer hospital ward.