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CCLG is pleased to be able to support other (often smaller or family-run) charities to meet their research aims and fund research into childhood cancer.

Before your child has any treatment, the doctor will explain its aims and will ask you or your child to sign a form to give permission (consent) for the hospital staff to give the treatment.

Surgery is an important part of cancer treatment. Depending on the size and position of the tumour in the body, an operation to remove it may be the first part of treatment.

Chemotherapy is the use of anti-cancer (cytotoxic) drugs to destroy cancer cells. Children usually have a combination of chemotherapy drugs.

Radiotherapy treats cancer by using high-energy rays to destroy cancer cells in a particular part of the body, while doing as little harm as possible to normal cells. The treatment is usually given in the hospital radiotherapy department as a series of short daily sessions over a few weeks.

Immunotherapy drugs target specific cancer cells.

There are many new drugs being developed for children’s cancer that work differently from the way chemotherapy works. These are often called biological agents or targeted drugs. They work by blocking a specific gene or protein that cancer cells have.

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These treatments are used for leukaemia but can be used for other cancers as well. A stem cell transplant (sometimes called a bone marrow transplant) allows your child to have much higher doses of chemotherapy than usual. This can improve the chance of curing their cancer but has more side effects.