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1940s
- Remission achieved in pediatric leukemia patients using an antifolate drug, aminopterin
1950s
- 6-mercaptopurine treats pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL)
- Combination chemotherapy introduced by NCI researchers
- NCI begins funding pediatric cooperative clinical trials
1960s
- Dactinomycin first used to treat Wilms tumor
- National Wilms Tumor Study Group formed and multi-modal therapy (radiation, chemotherapy, and surgery) first used in pediatric patients
- Prophylaxis of occult central nervous system leukemia markedly improves outcome for children with ALL
- Laminar airflow technology creates "sterile rooms" for chemotherapy patients
1970s
- Intergroup Rhabdomyosarcoma Study Group Committee pioneers repetitive-course, multi-agent chemotherapy for advanced rhabdomyosarcoma
- First successful bone marrow transplant (BMT) for leukemia
- Knudson describes the 2-hit hypothesis for retinoblastoma to describe genetics and heredity of cancer
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1980s
- First tumor-suppressor gene, in retinoblastoma, is cloned
- MYCN identified as a target of genomic amplification in neuroblastoma
- Adjuvant chemotherapy improves relapse-free survival for pediatric osteosarcoma
- Different treatment approaches for lymphoblastic lymphoma versus other lymphomas in children are realized
- Platinum-based combination chemotherapy improves response rates in pediatric germ cell tumors
- National Marrow Donor Program begins
1990s
- Autologous BMT and 13-cis-retinoic acid improve event-free survival for high-risk neuroblastoma
- Characteristic fusion genes identified for pediatric solid tumors
- Combined ifosfamide and etoposide improve outcomes for non-metastatic Ewing sarcoma
- Treatments achieve long-term survival rates of 80-90% for advanced Burkitt lymphoma
- Risk-directed therapy becomes treatment paradigm for children with ALL
- Genetic test for rare thyroid cancer enables prophylactic thyroidectomy before the age of 2
- NCI-funded Childhood Cancer Survivors Study begins
2000s
- Four legacy research groups merge as the Children's Oncology Group (COG)
- COG publishes long-term follow-up guidelines for pediatric cancer survivors
- Imatinib added to intensive chemotherapy improves early outcomes for Ph+ ALL
- 5-year survival rates for children with cancer (age 0-14 years) approach 80%
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