Childhood cancer: options must improve

Cancer Research UK figures show that from 2008 to 2010 an average of 1,603 children every year were diagnosed with cancer. Treatment of childhood cancers have improved in recent decades, with over 80% of children with cancer now surviving the disease. However, more children in the UK still die of cancer than of any other disease,¹ and treatment successes are by no means uniform, with some childhood cancers still having a very poor outcome, such as brain cancer and other central nervous system and intracranial tumours, some types of leukaemia and sympathetic nervous system tumours. 

There is a growing call for changes in the way that paediatric cancers are treated, bringing it more in line with advances in treatment for adult cancers, through the use of drugs targeted at specific molecular mechanisms. 

“For decades the drugs we have been using on children with cancer have not changed and all of the successes in childhood cancer have been achieved using standard chemotherapy drugs, most of which have never been licenced for paediatric use. The only tool we currently have available is our experience and knowledge of how to combine these drugs to achieve the best outcome for different types of childhood cancer,” said Professor Pamela Kearns, professor of clinical paediatric oncology at the University of Birmingham.