The purpose of this text on paediatric oncology in the Cancer Treatment and Research series is to provide an up-to-date summary of how recent advances in cancer research are being applied to the care of children with solid tumours. While researchers are identifying oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes and studying their specific functions, clinicians are using knowledge of oncogenes and tumour suppressor genes for diagnosing cancer in children, for therapeutic decision-making purposes, and for prognostic purposes. The first three chapters in the book describe models for understanding the causes of childhood cancer which were perhaps initially identified by clinicians and which are now being studied and understood by researchers. These chapters describe research evidence supporting roles for involvement of normal developmental regulatory genes in childhood oncogenesis, of abnormal immune regulation in childhood oncogenesis, and of heredity in childhood oncogenesis. The next eight chapters are devoted to descriptions of the application of new research developments to clinical practice in the most common forms of solid tumours of childhood outside the central nervous system. The final chapter describes late effects of childhood cancer and its therapy and the impact research is having on understanding and perhaps preventing these late effects. The emphasis on bridging research developments with clinical practice makes this book a unique resource for researchers and clinicians as the application of research developments to clinical practice increases and as clinical observations are studied with modern research tools.