A groundbreaking new clinical trial for children with brain cancer is about to get underway in Australia, being led by Hospital Research Foundation Fellow Professor Jordan Hansford.
The trial involves testing personalised cancer vaccines for children with relapsed or unresponsive high‑grade brain tumours, and hopes to improve both survival and quality of life for patients.
“I am very excited to trial a new treatment mode to target these very difficult to treat tumours, after several years of development,” said Professor Hansford, who is Clinical lead in Neuro-Oncology at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
Researchers will use each child’s tumour genetics to create a customised mRNA vaccine, designed to train the immune system to recognise and attack cancer cells while sparing healthy tissue.
“Given all the kids who are eligible for this study are without many treatment options, we are excited to add something new and novel. We hope we will see some responses in these children that we can learn from and build into the next generation of studies to hopefully one day have a new treatment option.”
As the Chief Investigator for the grant, Prof Hansford has coordinated the effort to secure funding for the trial. Supported by ANZCHOG, the trial has received funding from the Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF), with platform mRNA technology and investment coming from Providence Therapeutics.
“Our study team worked hard over the last year while we awaited anxiously for MRFF results. Thankfully we have been successful and will aim to now get the study open around the country in the next several months.”
Families seeking information about trial eligibility are encouraged to discuss it with their child’s oncologist.
