Join the Sixers Fight for Aussie kids with brain cancer

When young basketballer Daryl was just 10 years old, his parents noticed a stye in his left eye. The doctor recommended antibiotics for seven days, clearing the stye, but six months later it resurfaced.

On further testing, Daryl was referred to a specialist. An MRI scan confirmed there was a tumour, and Daryl had to go into surgery immediately to try to have it removed.

‘When he heard – he jumped and said no – he did not believe it,’ said Evelyn, Daryl’s mum.

The surgery went longer than expected. The tumour could not be removed as there was a fear Daryl might turn blind. The biopsy revealed that the tumour was cancerous.

‘I was very worried. I thought it would never happen… but it did. I thought this would ruin my career in basketball.’ Daryl said.

But even chemo couldn’t stop him, ‘I just wanted to get on the court and do my best’. Focusing on his dreams helped him through the tough times.

Your donation today will ensure we can put the best fight forward for children with brain cancer.

Brain cancer is one of the most common childhood cancers, with around 120 children and adolescents diagnosed each year in Australia.

Brain cancer also causes more deaths in children than any other type of cancer.

Sadly, children with the worst survival rate (about 55%) are those younger than 5 years old. Brain cancer is one of the toughest cancers to treat. The surgery involved has a high risk of brain damage, and in some cases, it is just impossible.

Radiation therapy can temporarily delay tumour growth, however, many chemotherapy drugs can’t cross the blood-brain barrier (our natural defence system against harmful chemicals entering the brain) and so can’t reach the cancer.

Professor Michael P. Brown and his team at the Centre for Cancer Biology in Adelaide are working hard to fight for Aussie children. In their study, they aim to provide a new kind of immunotherapy for aggressive brain cancers that affect children (and adults).

This immunotherapy is called chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy. CAR T-cell therapy involves using a patient’s own cancer-fighting T-cells, genetically engineering them in the lab to create supercharged “CAR” T-cells, and then returning them to the patient in the hope they can home in on the brain cancer and attack the cancer cells.

This approach has shown incredible results in effectively killing the brain cancer cells in pre-clinical trials, which gives us confidence that the next phase of the project with brain cancer patients will yield incredible results.

This is where you can really help. Your donation today will help us advance this lifesaving research.