Study shows treatment switch can save children’s lives

Feb 26 2008 by Audrey Barton, The Journal

CHEMOTHERAPY given with shorter intervals between treatments increases survival rates by two-thirds in children with a rare form of cancer, according to North East-based research.

The project conducted by the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle relates to children with high-risk neuroblastoma, a cancer of the nerve cells.

The findings have led to the roll-out of the more rapid chemotherapy methods across Europe. Scientists studied the effects of administering chemotherapy every 10 rather than 21 days at twice the conventional dose on 262 children with the condition.

They found five-year event-free survival rates increased by 12% in the group with the rapid 10-day technique and a reduction in the time taken to move on to the next stage of treatment by 55 days.

Survival in the rapid treatment group was 30.2%, compared with 18.2% in the standard treatment group.

Professor Andy Pearson, lead author of the paper, who previously worked at the RVI in Newcastle, said the method was already saving the lives of children.

The Cancer Research UK professor of paediatric oncology at the Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton, said: “Using a higher dose and having chemotherapy with shorter breaks between each treatment means that fewer children will die from the disease each year.

“This step forward in the treatment of high-risk neuroblastoma wouldn’t have been possible without the help of the parents of the children involved in the trial.

“Our study is the foundation of the current European study of high-risk neuroblastoma, which has already recruited more than 10,000 children and investigates new therapies.

“In the future, improvements will occur by developing new anti-cancer drugs which we are doing at the Institute of Cancer Research.”

The RVI was one of 19 UK centres to take part in the research which was conducted from 1990 to 1999. Neuroblastoma affects around 90 children each year in the UK.