Spotlight on Childhood Cancer
These days, the lives of many children diagnosed with cancer can be saved, but the treatment can lead to problems later in life. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet are working to find new and better treatments for childhood cancers, as well as to improve life quality for those who survive.
Survival at a reasonable price
Four out of five children diagnosed with cancer survive. But many survivors suffer side effects of their cancer treatment later in life. Where previously the aim was to survive at all costs, the aim is now increasingly to survive at a reasonable price.
Photo: Daria KirpachChildhood cancer genetics
These days we know of about 100 genes that we are certain are significant, but in the vast majority of cases we don’t know why children develop cancer.
Photo: Dan PageCancer drugs for children
Thanks to a new approach to developing new cancer drugs for children the hope is growing of saving more.
Photo: Ulf SirbornLithium can reverse radiation damage
The drug lithium can help reverse the damage caused by radiotherapy for a brain tumour. Researchers at KI are now planning to test the treatment in clinical trials.
Photo: Getty ImagesSevere grief can lead to poor health
Deep grief has both mental and physical health consequences for the sufferer that can take decades to heal. People can even die of grief. It is therefore important to try to alleviate the effects of severe grief, something that we in Sweden aren’t particularly good at.
Latest news from KI on childhood cancer
Some of our researchers in this area
Searching for better neuroblastoma treatments
Per Kogner is a senior physician and Professor of Paediatric Oncology. He is among other things occupied with trying to find better medications for neuroblastoma, an aggressive form of childhood cancer.
Photo: Stefan ZimmermanStudies injury and repair in the developing brain
Klas Blomgren is a paediatric oncologist and Professor of Paediatrics. His research is focused on injury and repair in the developing brain, with the aim to minimise the effects of an injury and promote mechanisms of repair.
Focus on clinical ethics in paediatric cancer care
Pernilla Pergert is Associate Professor and Principal Investigator of the Childhood Cancer Healthcare Research Group. Her research focus is intercultural care and clinical ethics in paediatric cancer care.
Photo: Ulf SirbornEpigenetics and stem cells in childhood cancers
Ola Hermanson is a Professor of Neuroscience and studies transcriptional and epigenetic regulation of tumor cell and cancer-derived stem cell state and fate, especially in glioma and childhood cancers medulloblastoma and neuroblastoma.