Phase I Trials Occasionally there are drugs to be tested in children for the first time. Research protocols involving new drugs are called Phase I studies. The goal is to find the appropriate dose to be used, with the hope that the children will respond to the treatment.
Investigational Treatments There is a long list of investigational protocols for most childhood cancers. These protocols are devised after close cooperation and collaboration among investigators working in The Children's Cancer Group or Pediatric Oncology Group or at specific centers of excellence.
The protocols may involve new drugs that have rarely been used in children, such as interferon or IL-2 (interleukin-2). Or they may involve new types of radiation therapy such as high-dose radiation given in a series of small doses (fractionated radiotherapy).
Most pediatric cancer experts do not consider such programs experimental but rather investigational. They consider these protocols an opportunity for the child and his or her family to participate on the frontier of medicine. A child with cancer should be treated with the methods being devised today that will possibly improve the chances for a cure tomorrow.
Bone Marrow Transplantation Several treatment programs for childhood cancer use the concept of bone marrow transplantation, although with many concerns, it is still considered an investigational treatment under evaluation ( see Bone Marrow Transplantation ).
