Efficiency and safety of chemotherapy plans for children: CATIPO--a nationwide approach.

Chemotherapy is an important component of childhood cancer treatment. Due to the intensity of this therapy, an error in calculating the dosage of the cytostatic drugs would have severe consequences. Therefore, a computer-aided therapy planning system in pediatric oncology (CATIPO) was introduced into routine use in approximately 20 clinics across Germany. The system consists of a knowledge acquisition module for acquiring knowledge about chemotherapy protocols and a decision support module for producing a patient-specific therapy plan. The main benefits of the system are the reduction of errors and saving time during the development of a particular therapy plan. CATIPO's success is based on the enormous demand for this kind of decision support and its development in tight cooperation with future users.