How Do We Ensure Pediatric Cancer Care Based on Quality and Developing New Possibilities?

The fight against childhood cancer is built on research. Thanks to successful research, approximately 85 percent of children diagnosed with cancer in Sweden now survive. What do we need to do to ensure all children are given a chance at a long and good life with the best possible health and quality of life?

Every day, a child in Sweden is diagnosed with cancer. Improved care, diagnosis-specific protocols, and optimized chemotherapy treatments greatly increased survival rates during the 70s and 80s, but in recent years, the rate of improvement has plateaued. Today's treatments are also so harsh that about 70 percent of childhood cancer survivors experience complications later in life. So what do we need to do to give more children a chance at a long and good life with the best possible health and quality of life?

New treatments and medicines are needed - treatments that are tougher on cancer while being gentler on the growing body. Currently, it takes over six years before a drug approved for adult cancer treatment is approved for children. One way to accelerate development and increase access to new therapies and medicines is for Sweden to participate in more international clinical trials. Increasing the proportion of international clinical trials is also a goal in the proposed new cancer strategy. How can this be achieved, and how can it be done in a way that allows children throughout the country to participate as close to their home as possible?

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