Cancer Research UK is to begin the first international trial of immunotherapy for a childhood cancer. About 40 children per year in the UK would be eligible for and potentially benefit from the new treatment.

Scientists would now test if enhancing the immune system could prevent the return of childhood cancer neuroblastoma which is a cancer of developing nervous system tissue and is often found in kids aged less than five years.

A US study found that immunotherapy improved the chances of survival from the disease. It uses a humanised form of an antibody derived from mice to aim cancer cells, which are later destroyed by the patient's immune system. It works by tracking neuroblastoma cells that have survived conventional treatment and attaching antibodies to specific molecules on their surface. These antibodies then assemble the body's immune defences to destroy the cells.

The disease must first be treated by chemotherapy and surgery and be in diminution before the antibody-based therapy is effective.

The trial, which is being carried out in combination with 22 other countries, will include 400 UK children who will undergo a treatment regime spending five days each month receiving the antibody intravenously for five months.

Consultant paediatric oncologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital Dr Penelope Brock said, "Results from a US trial found that children who received the immunotherapy treatment had lesser chance of the disease coming back two years later." This treatment would also treat the side-effects seen in the US trial.