Chemotherapy Protocol Proves Worth for High Risk Children’s Cancer
5 June 2011 - An 18 country study has demonstrated the benefit of the new European high dose chemotherapy protocol.
The research was led by Professor Andy Pearson from The Institute of Cancer Research and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, along with Great Ormond Street Hospital and international collaborators.
Figures, as reported to the American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in June, showed the European chemotherapy regimen gave a 61 per cent overall survival at three years, compared to 48 per cent for treatment based on the current American protocol.
The European standard has also proved to have fewer toxic side effects. From the end of last year, when these figures were validated, the randomised controlled trial was halted on ethical grounds so all European patients could receive the better treatment.
The conclusive results will change clinical practice worldwide. The chemotherapy drugs used in the European protocol - busulphan and melphalan - were discovered and developed at the ICR in the 1950s.
