The Clinical Department for Pediatric Hematology and Oncology is one of the most renowned specialist departments of its kind in Germany. It not only provides pediatric care for children with all types of malignant childhood diseases, but also performs all types of stem cell transplants. The following three pillars illustrate the main areas of our clinical work.
About clinical trials in children with cancer
For children and adolescents with malignant diseases, protocols containing diagnostic and therapeutic recommendations for most tumors, leukemias and lymphomas have been in place in Germany for over 40 years. These recommendations are the result of many years of experience and evaluation of previous studies. The current protocol contains new changes aimed at further optimizing therapy, thereby improving the prognosis and reducing toxicity while maintaining the same chances of cure. These treatment protocols are called therapy optimization studies. They cannot be compared with drug trials, which are concerned with the introduction of new drugs, for example.
Therapy optimization studies primarily serve the purpose of high-quality, uniform and optimal diagnosis and treatment, which is to be improved through changes in certain areas and/or for certain risk groups. This approach has led to the constant improvement of diagnostics and treatment in pediatric cancer medicine and such studies now represent the standard for the treatment of cancer in children and adolescents.
If there is as yet no procedure for a particular disease that promises a cure, then the methods practiced to date, which only occasionally show success, cannot be described as standard. In such cases, the oncologist may choose procedures that have not yet become standard if they are the only way to save a patient.
In the following selection box you will find further links to the conduct of clinical studies, our clinical laboratory, the study office and quality management.
