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File on 4: Childhood Cancer

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15/07/2014

Childhood Cancer

BBC Radio 4 - File on 4, Childhood Cancer

Childhood Cancer: Is red tape stopping the development of new drug treatments?

A child with cancer - every parent's nightmare: Are red tape and commercial considerations standing in the way of new drugs which could mean the difference between life and death?

Every year more than 1,500 UK children are diagnosed with cancer.
For some the outlook is good but for those struck down by one of the rarer cancers, the prognosis can be a bleak one.
Two hundred and fifty children die each year from the disease.
Parents have told File on 4 there is a worrying lack of research into new drugs for childhood cancers, with youngsters sometimes offered treatments which have hardly changed in the last forty years - treatments that can have a limited chance of success and which can cause fatal, serious and life-long side-effects for those lucky enough to survive.
In the battle to get the most up-to-date treatments for children with some of the most aggressive cancers, increasing numbers of families say they are forced to raise hundreds of thousands of pounds to travel abroad to take part in pioneering drugs trials elsewhere.
Meanwhile UK researchers say they face a constant battle for funding. They also warn of a loophole in European regulations which they say stops break-through drugs that have been developed for adult cancer sufferers, being developed to benefit children.
As science takes the treatment and understanding of disease to new levels, Jane Deith asks whether enough is being done to give children a fighting chance.
Reporter: Jane Deith
Producer: Nicola Dowling.

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