Chemotherapy given with shorter intervals between treatments than the conventional method increases survival rates by two thirds in children with high-risk neuroblastoma.

This is according to research conducted at the Royal Victoria Infirmary (RVI) in Newcastle, the findings of which are published in the Lancet Oncology today.

The RVI was one of 19 UK centres to take part in the research, which was conducted from 1990 to 1999, and funded by Cancer Research UK.

Neuroblastoma, a cancer of specialised nerve cells, affects about 90 children in the UK each year, and the high-risk type of the disease is one of the main causes of cancer-related deaths in children.

Researchers treated children over the age of one who were suffering from high-risk, 'stage four' neuroblastoma – the most aggressive form of the disease.

Professor Andy Pearson, lead author of the paper and Cancer Research UK's professor of paediatric oncology at The Institute of Cancer Research and the Royal Marsden Hospital, in Sutton, said: "Our method of chemotherapy increases the survival rates for children with high-risk neuroblastoma and is already saving the lives of many children.

"Using a higher dose and having chemotherapy with shorter breaks between each treatment means that fewer children will die from the disease each year."