Launched last year in Brussels, the project QUARTET (Quality and Excellence in Radiotherapy and Imaging for Children and Adolescents with Cancer across Europe in Clinical Trials) is rapidly making progresses and has enrolled its first patient.QUARTET is assessing the quality and effectiveness of the use of radiotherapy in children and adolescents with cancer through an entirely online platform. SIOPE and EORTC are joining forces in this initiative, the first of its kind for paediatric cancer in Europe, with the aim of improving radiation therapy through  a centralized prospective review of radiation treatment plans for every child and adolescent entered in one of SIOPE’s clinical trials.

The first patient had been enrolled in the SIOPE trial LINES (Low and Intermediate risk NEuroblaStoma), one of the 9 European clinical trials that are currently introducing the QUARTET platform. More specifically, some of the patients of intermediate risk in the trial will receive radiotherapy with the primary aim of investigating improvements in event-free survival for patients above 18 months. QUARTET will facilitate data management through a platform for the upload and visualization of the patient’s radiotherapy plan and diagnostic images. SIOPE paediatric oncology radiotherapy experts, members of the QUARTET group, will use the same platform to access, visualize and review the data securely.

QUARTET will cover children and adolescents treated for neuroblastoma, rhabdomyosarcoma and brain tumours, and it will include an estimated number of 500 patients per year. Funded for the next 5 years by  Fondatioun Kriibskrank Kanner (a Luxembourg foundation supporting families of childhood cancer patients), it is one of the several projects and platforms foreseen in the SIOPE Strategic Plan ‘A European Cancer Plan for Children and Adolescent’, aiming to achieve better outcomes for childhood cancer patients.

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