Therapy Optimising Trials and Registry in the GPOH
Cooperative, multicentric clinical trials are conducted in children and adolescents with cancer or with certain diseases of the blood, respectively, since about 1970. Such trials are required to obtain valid data, because these diseases are rare.
Author: Prof. Dr. med. U. Creutzig, English Translation: Heidi Krumland, Last modification: 2016/02/17 doi:10.1591/poh.kinderkrebsinfo.therapiestudien
Given the rare occurrence of malignant diseases in childhood, physicians working in the field of paediatric oncology already co-operated in the 1970s to gain sufficient experience in treating paediatric malignancies. Six years after Donald Pinkel (Memphis/USA) had presented his treatment results for children with ALL in Munich in 1968, nearly identical results were achieved in the first cooperative trial for treating ALL in Germany. The BFM (Berlin, Frankfurt, Münster) study group founded by H. Riehm in 1976 gained international recognition due to its treatment concept and high cure rate in ALL.
Today paediatric oncologists in more than 70 clinics throughout Germany, Austria, and Switzerland participate in this cooperation. During the last few years, more and more therapy optimising trials have taken place within a European or even worldwide context. This has led to impressive, internationally recognised treatment results. The table Diseases lists the various trials. Further details on individual trials can be obtained by clicking on the items listed in the right frame.