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Because Research stands for Hope and a Chance for Recovery
Last update on: 10/15/2009
"We will only be able to achieve further improvements in pediatric oncology if we gain an even better insight into the biological characteristics of the malignant cancer cells occurring in children and adolescents, and subsequently manage to reduce the side and late effects of current treatments by discovering less aggressive therapy methods. It is our aim to offer all children and youths affliced with cancer a chance of survival.”
Prof. Helmut Gadner,
Medical director of the St. Anna Children’s Hospital,
Director of the St. Anna Children’s Cancer Research Institute and
Coordinator of the EC-funded project “Overcoming Cancer with Research”
Today, there is a cure for up to 75% of children and adolescents diagnosed with cancer. Find the presentation "Paediatric oncology in the course of time" in the material repository.
As a matter of fact, oncology has largely benefited from the remarkable advances achieved both in diagnostics and treatment strategies.
Yet, while the survival rates of cancer in adult patients is about 50 percent, the increase in the 5-year survival rates of childhood cancer of up to 75 percent represents one of the major medical breakthroughs of the past four decades.
The success story of paediatric oncology is attributed to
- national and international networks of paediatric oncological experts
- international cooperations (paediatric oncologists, radiologists, paediatric surgeons, psychologists,…)
- systematic biomedical and clinical research
- Therapy-Optimisation-Studies (TOS)
- modern and innovative methods of diagnosis and treatment
- support through donations and public funding, for example through the framework programmes of the European Commission
The successful treatments of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) which is the most common form of childhood cancer are the most notable achievements to date.
