Childhood Cancer Needs Greater Awareness and Stable Funding to Accelerate Innovative Therapies into Clinical Practice

One of the main obstacles to advancing childhood cancer research is the low number of cases. In Spain, approximately 1,500 cases are diagnosed each year, representing just 1% of all cancer cases. The low incidence makes research more complex and requires cooperation among multiple centers, including at the international level, to access enough samples and data.

According to Marina Salmón, Head of Project Evaluation at the Scientific Foundation of the Spanish Association Against Cancer, a partner of AseBio, these figures “make it difficult to attract investment from the pharmaceutical industry, so research depends largely on public funding and nonprofit organizations.”

Unlike adult cancer, “during childhood, cancer generally cannot be prevented, nor are there awareness campaigns or early diagnosis initiatives. The absence of these campaigns makes childhood cancer less visible in society and more easily overlooked.”

The Role of Biotechnology in Childhood Cancer

Pediatric tumors have unique biological characteristics that make treatments designed for adults often ineffective. Research and biotechnology allow the development of more precise and safer therapies. “It has been observed that childhood cancer and adult cancer often start from different mutations in different genes,” explains Salmón. “Therapies designed for adults cannot be extrapolated to pediatric patients,” she adds.

Currently, research focuses on developing more personalized, age-adapted therapies, not only to achieve a better response to treatment but also to improve patients’ quality of life. “Current efforts focus on finding new therapeutic approaches that are more innovative, specific, and with fewer side effects, which are not only effective but also improve the quality of life of children. This is especially important in childhood, as their bodies are still developing and it is essential to minimize potential long-term treatment effects.”

Thanks to these advances, “pediatric patient survival is above 80%.” However, Salmón warns that “there are certain particularly aggressive types of childhood cancer where survival remains low and treatment options are limited, making research in this field crucial.”

Funding and Key Projects

The scientific and biotech community is driving multicenter networks that facilitate patient recruitment and access to clinical data and innovative therapies. Examples include the Multicenter International Clinical Trials Platform-SEHOP (ECLIM-SEHOP) and the Spanish Network of Pediatric Clinical Trials (RECLIP).

The Scientific Foundation made a decisive step in 2007 by launching the first exclusive childhood cancer call for proposals, paving the way to attract talent and research in an underserved area. Currently, it supports international multicenter clinical trials to accelerate the development of new treatments for rare cancers through the ATTRACT program. Among the awarded projects are Interfant-21, led by Dr. Álvaro Lassaletta to improve the treatment of infants with acute lymphoblastic leukemia, and FOSTER‑CabOs, developed by Dr. Cristina Mata to evaluate cabozantinib as a new therapeutic option in osteosarcoma, a disease with no advances in decades.

The Scientific Foundation funds 39 pediatric cancer research projects, with a total investment of €10.75 million, including four projects integrated into international networks such as ATTRACT, TRANSCAN, and Cancer Grand Challenges. In 2025, it allocated €1 million to a phase II clinical trial evaluating the efficacy of an oncolytic virotherapy for recurrent or refractory pediatric brain tumors. It also supports initiatives focused on well-being and quality of life, such as the chair led by Dr. Julia Balaguer at the University of Valencia, which studies how physical exercise and psychosocial support can improve children’s physical and emotional condition during and after treatment.

“Childhood cancer requires a shared commitment to place the patient and their family at the center. This involves comprehensive care that addresses their physical, emotional, and social well-being throughout the entire course of the disease, as well as cutting-edge research driven by multidisciplinary teams working in networks. To make this an urgent priority, more awareness and stable funding are needed to accelerate innovative therapies and bring them into clinical practice.”