How we make treatments smarter

Researchers at the Máxima Center are looking for ways to develop better treatments and reduce side effects. Here’s how they do it ⬇️

Better combinations of existing drugs

Using AI to take a smart look at as many as 400 existing chemotherapy drugs

Chemotherapy is still the main type of medication that cures children with cancer. There are as many as 400 types, but many have not been extensively tested for each of the more than 50 types of childhood cancer.

Researchers at the Máxima Center are working with colleagues at other institutes to use AI to reexamine all the information available about existing chemotherapy drugs. How much of a drug actually reaches different tissues in the body, and how much is needed to kill tumor cells from different types of childhood cancer? By intelligently combining all this information, they will look for new, more effective combinations of existing drugs.

Hope for children who become overweight after a brain tumor

Children lose weight, and their lives no longer revolve around food

Children whose brain tumor has damaged the part of the brain that regulates hormones can experience uncontrolled, constant hunger, among other symptoms. This can cause severe obesity. The Máxima Center took part in a clinical study of a drug that restores the signal in the brain that tells you when you are full. The children in the study lost an impressive amount of weight. And perhaps just as importantly, their lives no longer revolved solely around food and weight.

Developing organs

Looking for the right dose for babies

Children are still growing and developing, particularly during the first year of life. But could growing organs, for example, also affect how much of a cancer drug is needed to treat the disease effectively? Researchers at the Máxima Center are now studying this in babies with ALL.

Organs such as the liver and kidneys, which break down drugs, are still developing. This may mean that babies need a different amount of a drug than older children. By studying this, the researchers hope that doses can be adjusted to babies’ stage of development, so that the drug works as effectively as possible while causing as few side effects as possible.

Medication for nausea

Longer chemotherapy, but nausea for less time?

Four in ten children experience nausea as a side effect of their treatment. Some types of chemotherapy cause more nausea than others. Children can receive a medication called aprepitant to prevent nausea. It is given for three days, but some courses of chemotherapy last longer. Researchers at the Máxima Center are studying whether it helps to give the anti-nausea medication throughout longer courses of chemotherapy, for four to eight days. The study is still ongoing, but the hope is that this will help children experience less nausea and vomiting.

93% survival and fewer side effects

Hematologist-oncologist Inge van der Sluis on blinatumomab

The survival rate of babies with an aggressive form of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) has improved significantly thanks to the immunotherapy blinatumomab. Despite more intensive chemotherapy, it was not possible to improve the outlook for these babies over the past decades. In half of the children, the disease returned within two years, or they died from the disease or the side effects of the treatment. Adding immunotherapy to chemotherapy increased the survival rate from 60% to 93%.

Hemato-oncologist Inge van der Sluis led this study. ‘It is fantastic to see that we have taken such a big step forward for babies with ALL.’ The combination of immunotherapy and chemotherapy led to much better survival and fewer side effects. ‘The results are so good that this treatment is now part of standard care worldwide.’