Decreased morbidity and mortality of autologous hematopoietic transplants for children with malignant central nervous system tumors: the ‘Head Start’ trials, 1991–2009

Since 1991, three sequential prospective clinical trials have been conducted by the 'Head Start' (HS) Consortium in which young children with newly-diagnosed malignant central nervous system (CNS) tumors were treated with induction chemotherapy followed by single-cycle marrow-ablative chemotherapy and autologous hematopoietic rescue as a means of improving disease cure rate and quality of survival through avoidance (