The world's largest study aimed at improving the treatment of a rare type of bone cancer that mainly affects children and young adults is well underway, an international conference was told.

The EURAMOS clinical trial, which involves a collaboration across 11 European countries, as well as the US and Canada, is on course to recruit some 1400 patients over the next few years to improve treatment for osteosarcoma, the most common bone cancer in children.

Doctors and scientists meeting at a conference in Stuttgart, Germany last week (30 November-2 December 2006) heard that recruitment for the trial was on track, with some 335 patients so far being treated within the trial.

The conference, Pan European Sarcoma Trials moving forward in a climate of increasing economic and regulatory pressure', represented a unique gathering of experts in the field of the type of cancer called sarcomas.

Professor Stefan Bielack, the co-ordinator of the EURAMOS trial, told the meeting, "While sarcomas are rare, accounting for less than one per cent of all cancers, they are some of the most frequent that occur in childhood and adolescence. Treatment is complex and collaboration between many centres and different countries is crucial."

The EURAMOS study brings together three existing European collaborations that are examining treatments for sarcomas, and one North American group. EURAMOS an acronym for the European and American Osteosarcoma Study Group is being funded through the European Science Foundation's EUROCORES (European Collaborative Research) programme on pan-European Clinical Trials (ECT).

People with osteosarcoma are usually first given chemotherapy before the tumour is surgically removed, followed by another course of chemotherapy. The effect of the initial course of chemotherapy can vary however; in some cases there is a good response and in others a poor response. This can have a bearing on the ultimate outcome
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Contact: Sofia Valleley
svalleley@esf.org
33-388-762-149
European Science Foundation
5-Dec-2006