Home EpSSG Structure EpSSG centres Disease informations Links EpSSG Clinical trials Members' Area EpSSG International Data Centre	European Paediatric Soft Tissue Sarcoma Study Group Mission To promote scientific and clinical research to better cure children suffering from soft tissue sarcoma About the European Paediatric Soft Tissue Sarcoma Study Group (EpSSG) Three Co-operative Groups exist in Europe organising clinical trials for children and adolescents with soft tissue sarcoma (STS). The SIOP-MMT (Société International de Oncologie Pediatrique- Malignant Mesenchimal Tumour) Group recruits patients from France, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Ireland, Norway, Spain, and a part of Switzerland. The German co-operative soft tissue sarcoma group (CWS) enrols patients from Germany, Austria, Sweden, Poland and a part of Switzerland. The Italian Co-operative Group (ICG) has been recruiting all the Italian patients with paediatric soft tissue sarcoma. The three European Groups have been conducting clinical trials since the late seventies. Since 2000, the three Groups have planned to merge their clinical activities to design and implement pan-European studies creating a new collaborative structure denominated European Soft tissue sarcoma Study Group (EpSSG). This inter-group collaboration is considered mandatory to perform more powerful trials and to reach greater validity and generalisability as well as better potential to change clinical practice. Scientific hypotheses have been generated in the past year to launch a new EpSSG Protocol. The three cooperative Groups act on behalf of the following societies: GPOH - Germany, Austria: Gesellschaft fur padiatrische Onkologie und Hamatologie AIEOP - Associazione Italiana di Ematologia e Oncologia Pediatrica (C.S.S. Sarcomi) UKCCSG - United Kingdom Children's Cancer Study Group SFCE - Société Francaise des Cancers d'Enfants SEOP - Sociedad Espanola de Oncologìa Pediàtrica NOPHO Denmark, Norway, Sweden - Organisation of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology The EpSSG takes into account the differences in the study management and regulations that may exist in the different European countries and cooperative Groups and try to armonize them.