International specialist consultation offers new treatment options
14 april 2026
Collaboration is crucial within pediatric oncology. This is especially true when a child’s treatment is not effective or when the disease returns. In such cases, which treatment options are still available? To determine this, pediatric oncologists and researchers specializing in blood cancers from all over the world come together for the first time in a regular digital consultation.
Survival rates for children with leukemia or lymphoma have improved significantly over recent decades. However, in a small proportion of children, the disease unfortunately returns multiple times, or the standard treatment is no longer effective. In those situations, fewer and fewer treatment options or clinical trials to participate in are available. Which treatment is then the best choice?
With this in mind, pediatric oncologists and researchers from the Prinses Máxima Center set up a special consultation: the International Leukemia/Lymphoma Target Board. During this consultation, an international team from 15 countries brings together the expertise of pediatric oncologists and scientists who conduct research into the biology of blood cancers and into new medicines or medicines involved in clinical trials.
In the first year in which the digital consultations took place, 42 children from 18 countries were discussed, and treatment recommendations were formulated by the participating specialists. A proportion of these children were also able to take part in a clinical trial, with international referral from the consultation helping to ensure that healthcare costs in or from abroad could be reimbursed.
The researchers look back positively on the first year. They indicate that this structured, international approach is necessary to give this specific group of children access to the most appropriate treatment. Healthcare professionals also learn a great deal from the meeting, because everyone contributes his or her own experience. The children for whom a recommendation has been issued will be followed over the coming years to assess whether the proposed treatment has been successful.
The international consultation will continue in the coming years. The aim is to discuss approximately 50 children each year with very difficult-to-treat blood cancers.
The establishment of the international consultation was made possible in part through financial support from the Oncode Institute and Fight Kids Cancer.
Identifying and prioritizing new options
The International Leukemia/Lymphoma Target Board is a virtual consultation platform in which experts from several countries in the fields of blood cancer, genetics, stem cell transplantation, immunotherapy and clinical studies jointly formulate recommendations. An average of 28 experts were involved per meeting.
The evaluation of the first year of the iLTB has been published in Haematologica. Dr. Judith Boer and Uri Ilan coordinated the iLTB under the leadership of research group leaders Prof. Dr. Monique den Boer and Prof. Dr. Michel Zwaan.
Therapeutic strategy
Pediatric oncologists could submit cases directly to the iLTB. In the first year, 42 children were discussed. For 41 of them, a concrete treatment recommendation could be formulated. In four out of five cases, this recommendation was subsequently applied.
Thanks to the iLTB, more than one in three (36%) of these children were able to participate in a clinical trial or a so-called ‘named patient protocol’, in which an as-yet experimental medicine is made available. That is three times as much as before. This often took place via international referrals, because certain treatments were not available in the child’s own country.
The results show that an international team of experts genuinely helps in identifying and prioritizing new options for children with a very difficult-to-treat form of blood cancer. In nearly 40% of patients, the recommendation even led to a completely new therapeutic strategy.
In its first year, the iLTB platform therefore achieved its most important goal: increasing access to innovative and experimental treatments for high‑risk children. The consultation will be continued in the coming years. The discussed children will be followed for two years to enable assessment of the clinical added value of the recommended treatments.