A new treatment protocol for the most common form of childhood cancer has “instantly” changed how doctors treat pediatric leukemia — and provided a first-in-decades boost for the long-term survival and health of young patients. “This happens once in several generations,” said Dr. Lia Gore of Children’s Hospital Colorado. Gore co-authored a paper published earlier this month describing the effects of the treatment. “We’ve now moved this outcome so that the vast majority of children with this type of leukemia will have a 96% cure rate,” she said. The breakthrough, described in a New England Journal of Medicine paper and presented at a conference in mid-December, is called blinatumomab, an immunotherapy drug delivered to patients over a 28-day IV drip.