A promising childhood cancer research project can start, thanks to funding from KiKa. This study focuses on infections in children with cancer. With this study, researchers hope to further improve treatment options and survival rates for children with cancer.
For children with cancer, infections are a serious side effect during treatment. In some cases, this leads to blood poisoning, also known as sepsis, a life-threatening inflammatory reaction. New findings show that the immune response is not the same in all children with sepsis. Children with an extreme inflammatory response and many inflammatory substances in the blood have a higher risk of dying. In this project, paediatric oncologists Bianca Goemans and BMT specialist and pediatric immunologist Caroline Lindemans from the Princess Máxima Centre are working together with colleagues Bas Vastert (paediatric immunologist) and Roelie Wösten-van Asperen (paediatric intensivist) from the Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital.
They will investigate whether an existing drug, which inhibits a specific inflammatory protein, can help improve survival rates in children with cancer who develop sepsis and are admitted to the paediatric ICU for this purpose. By looking at what inflammatory substances are in the blood, the researchers want to better understand what goes wrong in the immune system and develop more targeted treatments for these children.
