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Partnership with adult oncology
During the last 50 years, paediatric
oncology has developed in relative isolation.
Improving the cooperation of all paediatric
haematologists and oncologists was
the crucial objective so that an effective
European clinical research programme could
be set up and address the very specific
needs of children with cancers without
reference to adult cancer services.
It is now recognised that adult and
paediatric oncology have a lot to share
and learn from each other, and that
collaboration is beneficial in order to
address common goals and challenges:
g
Care and research for rare cancers,
in terms of innovative methodology to
evaluate new treatments and in terms
of health care organisation models to
provide access to expertise for patients
suffering from rare and extremely rare
cancers;
g
Care and research for TYA (see above);
g
Access to essential medicines, since most
anti-cancer drugs are used to treat
both adult and paediatric cancers, even
though there are differences in the
tumours;
g
European initiatives on care and research
oncopolicies.
SIOPE and ESMO (the European Society
of Medical Oncology) have decided to
develop a joint initiative to address those
topics, and established a Memorandum of
Understanding to help this collaboration.
Partnership with paediatric
haematology-oncology in other
continents
SIOPE is part of the global paediatric
oncology agenda run by the International
Society of Paediatric Oncology (SIOP).
Several European-centred study groups
have an international scope, and bring
together global investigators to participate
in a common clinical trials portfolio.
The IBFM-study group is international, and
patients from countries outside Europe
participate to its leukaemia trials and
translational research projects.
More than a hundred institutions from
Europe, Asia, Central and South America,
Australia and New Zealand collaborate in
SIOPEL, the SIOPE-liver study group. Early
drug trial groups such as ITCC in Europe,
the Pediatric Oncology Experimental
Therapeutics Investigator’s Consortium
(POETIC) and Therapeutic Advances in
Childhood Leukemia and Lymphoma (TACL)
in North America, the Canadian C17 network,
the Australia Children’s Cancer Trials group
and the Children Oncology Group (COG)
phase I consortium are working together
to speed up the development of new
anticancer agents.
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A EUROPEAN CANCER PLAN FOR CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS
Credit Hellenic Society of Paediatric Haematology-Oncology
(HeSPHO), Greece