Accessibility statement

Improving the management of children and young people with cancer

Childhood cancer is uncommon: only 1 in 600 children will develop a malignancy before 16 years of age. Cure is possible though, and with aggressive treatments the cure rate is around 80% in Europe and North America.

We can improve survival and quality of life by making diagnoses more accurate, and by preventing and treating complications from the therapies we use. The CRD team are involved in a series of studies examining how we prevent and manage the complications of childhood cancer therapies. Our main work is on potential life threatening infections in children with cancer, including the PICNICC Collaboration which has made an active difference to the care of children with cancer around the world.

We also work on improving the management of chemotherapy induced nausea and vomiting, nutritional support, and psychological support interventions. The CRD team works in collaboration to develop the methods of undertaking such research, to make it more effective and efficient. The expertise of the team has been sought in international collaborations examining diagnostic technologies and assessing and reducing the adverse effects of different cancer treatments.

Our expertise in evidence synthesis has led to the world's first 'living systematic review' in childhood cancer, focussed on the treatment of relapsed and refractory rhabdomyosarcoma. We are looking at using these skills in developing more projects in other disease groups.

This review expertise is also being applied to how we follow up children after their treatment has finished. A landmark review showed how we could improve our understanding hugely, and we have an NIHR PhD Fellow (Lucy Beresford) developing work in this area.

We are always keen to discuss research collaborations or fellowships in this area, and delighted to welcome clinical researchers from any health or social care background. Please contact bob.phillips@york.ac.uk by email or Twitter @drbobphillips if you'd like to find out more.