TREATING childhood cancer with medicine tailored to individual patients could halve the risk of it growing or spreading, a study found.in England has committed to offering all children with cancer personalised medicine, and now screens the DNA of every youngster who gets a diagnosis to tailor their treatment.
More than half of those using the modern treatment – 55 per cent – went into partial or total remission despite having a less than 30 per cent chance of a cure. “Now we've shown that it not only can shrink their tumours but can also lead to a significant improvement in long term survival.”Two thirds received specialised treatments, which can target hormones and growth factors involved in their specific cancers, rather than standard therapy.estimates about 0.2 per cent of children – fewer one in every 400 – will develop a tumour by the age of 14.