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 Frdrique Denis of Montreal, who was diagnosed with breast cancer last year at age 28 and finished treatment in January.

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.

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