A new high-dose chemotherapy regimen has been shown to improve survival of children with high-risk neuroblastoma, a common paediatric cancer, according to a European clinical trial.

“The study’s results are important for patients with this extremely difficult to treat disease,” said lead author Ruth Ladenstein of the University of Vienna and St. Anna Children’s Cancer Research Institute in Vienna, Austria.

The results were presented in Chicago at the 47th annual conference of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. More than 30,000 researchers and representatives of pharmaceutical companies participated in the forum. The phase 3 trial showed better overall survival with a combination of the myeloablative chemotherapy drugs busulphan and melphalan (BuMel) compared to a different myeloablative regimen of three chemotherapy drugs, carboplatin, etoposide and melphalan (CEM).

Previously, only 30 per cent of children with high-risk neuroblastoma survive long-term.

The study’s results show that survival can increase by 20 per cent.

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