Using advanced gene-hunting technology, an international team of researchers has for the first time identified a chromosome region that is the source of genetic events that give rise to neuroblastoma, an often fatal childhood cancer.

Survival rates of childhood cancers, especially leukemia, have improved greatly in the past three decades, but survivors of this disease still seem to face many health and lifestyle challenges as young adults.

Expanded use of palliative care services is associated with enhanced communications between families and caregivers, improved symptoms management, and better quality of life for children dying from cancer, according to study by researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Children's Hospital Boston.

Physicians at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital have demonstrated that children with bilateral Wilms tumor, a cancer of the kidneys, can retain normal function in both kidneys by undergoing a procedure called bilateral nephron-sparing surgery, even when preoperative scans suggest that the tumors are inoperable.

A discovery by St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital scientists suggests a safer way to treat medulloblastoma, a rare but often fatal childhood brain tumor. The group found that one of the brain’s signaling pathways inhibits the growth of the highly aggressive cancer cells.

The special issue, available free online until March, presents key articles of interest to caregivers and those who suffer from childhood cancer; articles that:

PET/CT imaging exhibits significantly higher sensitivity, specificity and accuracy than conventional imaging when it comes to detecting malignant tumors in children, according to research published in the December issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

Researchers have identified a new role for a cancer-prevention gene in the response to drug treatment for childhood cancer.

Epigenetic changes in Wilms tumor, a rare type of childhood kidney cancer, do not appear to be widespread.

Young children diagnosed with a malignant type of brain tumour will benefit from research that has taken twelve years to complete.

Dr Richard Lock, Head of the Leukaemia Biology Program at the Children’s Cancer Institute Australia for Medical Research, Sydney, along with collaborators from the Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and University of Southern California, USA, recently published their findings in the prestigious scientific journal Blood.

Scientists investigating drug therapies for children with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) have presented new data demonstrating for the very first time that a small molecule called ABT-737 can increase the effectiveness of standard therapies.