May 24, 2011 Contact: Rachel Salis-Silverman, Department of
Public Relations, 267-426-6063 Using immunotherapy—biologic
agents that stimulate the body’s immune system—pediatric
oncologists have achieved the first substantial increase in over
a decade in cure rates for the childhood cancer neuroblastoma. A
newly released study shows that the new treatment improved two-
year survival rates by 20 percentage points, compared to
standard treatment for an aggressive form of neuroblastoma, a
cancer of the nervous system. The study appears in the Sept. 30
issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, along with a
separate COG study on intermediate-risk neuroblastoma. The
corresponding author of the immunotherapy study is Alice L. Yu,
MD, PhD, of the University of California, San Diego. “We expect
these findings will change clinical practice, setting a new gold
standard of treatment for this often-deadly disease,” said John
M. Maris, MD, a co-author of the study and director of the
Center for Childhood Cancer Research