Treatment options--commentary.

Although effective treatments are available for many children with LCH, there are many others for whom no definitive therapy yet exists. These patients include those with 1) multisystem disease and associated organ dysfunction, 2) chronic, relapsing disease, 3) new onset pituitary involvement associated with diabetes insipidus and 4) long-term complications such as pulmonary fibrosis, liver fibrosis or CNS involvement. This introductory paper discusses these clinical problem areas and then reviews several new therapeutic approaches including novel chemotherapeutic agents, immunosuppressive strategies, bone marrow transplantation and gene therapy.