Biology and treatment of malignant solid tumors in childhood

Cancer in children has a low incidence. The type of malignancies differs substantially from tumors in adults. Since long-term event-free survival rates above 80% are noted in several tumors, it is estimated that in the future 1 in 750 adults will be a cancer survivor. Data on late effects are emerging and indicate that a large proportion of ex-patients has several and sometimes severe treatment sequelae. Minimizing treatment without loss of effectiveness in good risk cases and improving therapy in poor cases should be main goals in the future. In this review an update is given on tumor biology and treatment for several tumors, i.e. neuroblastoma, nephroblastoma, rhabdomyosarcoma, Ewing sarcoma, osteosarcoma, hepatoblastoma and germ cell tumors.