Improving treatments

We are working towards the development of treatments that will offer hope to every child diagnosed with cancer. We want to develop treatments that will cure even the highest-risk cancers, without jeopardising children's future health and welfare.

Survival rates for children with cancer have improved dramatically over recent decades. More than three quarters of children diagnosed with cancer can now be successfully treated.

The primary treatment for most types of cancer is chemotherapy. This involves using combinations of powerful drugs to kill the deadly cancer cells.

These drugs have saved the lives of many thousands of children. But the side-effects can be hard to bear and can make children extremely unwell.

The drugs can also have serious long-term effects, including risks of second cancers, heart damage and infertility.

Read more: Research successes | Current treatment research projects | Treatment

ALL 2011 – taking treatment forward for children with leukaemia

Clinical trials help us to find better ways of treating leukaemia and other cancers. They allow us to test new treatments and new ways of controlling symptoms.

Successive clinical trials carried out over the last few decades are behind the amazing increase in survival rates for childhood cancers.

Thanks to your support, we have been able to award major funding for the UK’s latest clinical trial for children and young people with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL): ALL 2011.

The aim of the trial, which will involve 2,500 young patients over six years, is to further improve survival and quality of survival in these patients.

Read more: UK ALL 2011

Exciting new alternatives to chemotherapy

New treatments are desperately needed – not only to give hope to the children who cannot currently be cured – but also to avoid some of the toxicity associated with existing treatments.

Thanks to the generosity of our many supporters, we are funding four ground-breaking projects at Great Ormond Street Hospital looking at alternatives to conventional chemotherapy.

The four project teams are using the latest immunotherapy techniques to reprogramme the immune system, helping it to recognise and destroy leukaemic cells. Find out more about these projects below:

Project 1: Dr Persis Amrolia and Dr Nick Goulden
Immunotherapy after stem cell transplant in children with high-risk ALL

Project 2: Dr Persis Amrolia
Improving immune response following bone marrow transplant for children with ALL

Project 3: Dr Waseem Qasim
T cell receptor therapy against leukaemia

Project 4: Dr John Anderson and Dr Martin Pule
Assessment of anti-PAX5 immunotherapy for paediatric haematological and solid cancers

Read more: Full list of current treatment projects | Research successes

Related Topics information for researchers, Dr Nicholas Goulden, chemotherapy, ALL, Dr Persis Amrolia, treatments, Dr Waseem Qasim, Dr John Anderson, Dr Martin Pule

Categories Research