Metronomic chemotherapy, which is defined by the frequent, repetitive administration of chemotherapeutic drugs at relatively low doses, and without prolonged drug-free break, is an emerging strategy to fight cancer. Initially thought to act by targeting tumour angiogenesis, additional mechanisms have been recently unveiled and metronomic chemotherapy is now considered to represent a form of multi-targeted therapy. Despite representing a genuine alternative for advanced and/or high-risk cancer therapy, the development of metronomic approaches in pediatric oncology are still in the early stage. The lack of large scale state-of-the-art clinical trials, issues regarding terminology and the limited understanding of the complex and intertwined mechanisms of action of metronomic treatments hinder the visibility and credibility of this field of research. On March 18th -19th 2010, the 2nd International Workshop on Metronomic and Anti-Angiogenic Chemotherapy in Pediatric Oncology was held in Marseille, France, and brought together clinicians, basic scientists, physicianscientists, trainees and students from all around the world. The main aim of this international meeting was to provide a unique forum to i) reflect on the major advances that have been made in this field of research since its creation, ii) communicate results from the most recent clinical trials and pre-clinical studies, iii) discuss the current and future challenges of the field, iv) standardize terminology and v) set forth a solid framework for future collaborative biological and clinical studies. The present report documents the main pre-clinical and clinical data that were presented in the keynote and best abstract sessions and delivers the key messages from the meeting

full report of the meeting available freely in Translational Oncology : click here

Moving forward with metronomic scheduling of anti-cancer treatment: Meeting report of the 2nd international workshop on metronomic and antiangiogenic chemotherapy in paediatric oncology Pasquier E, Kieran M.W, Sterba J, Shaked Y, Baruchel S, Oberlin O, Kivivuori M.S, Peyrl A, Diawarra M, Casanova M, Zacharoulis S, Vassal G, Berthold F, Verschuur A, André N.