There are more than 40 major types of brain cancers, with Glioblastoma the most common and aggressive type, accounting for almost two-thirds of all Australian brain cancers.
New brain cancer treatments are vital to save lives from this devastating disease.
Brain Cancer Support
Funding for critical start-up operations for the new Australian Bragg Centre for Proton Therapy and Research. This will soon be the first facility in the southern hemisphere to offer lifesaving proton treatment for hard-to-access cancers like brain cancer.
Proton therapy technology will be able to target and destroy cancer cells using radiation without damaging healthy tissues, by delivering powerful proton beams to precisely where they’re needed. The unit will see around 800 patients treated every year.
Support for clinical oncologist Associate Professor Jordan Hansford to practice at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital as The Hospital Research Foundation Paediatric Radiation Oncology Fellow.
A/Prof Hansford will help develop lifesaving care for neuro-oncology patients and those referred to South Australia for proton therapy – a precise and less invasive radiotherapy that destroys cancer cells and minimises damage to healthy tissue.
Investigating a new treatment option for adults and children with relapsed Glioblastoma, which involves engineering a patient’s own cancer-killing T-cells to create super-targeted “CAR T-cells”, then returning the CAR T-cells to the patient so they can home in and attack the cancer cells.
Researcher
Professor Michael Brown hopes to use CAR T-cell therapy for brain cancer that has relapsed, as there is no standard treatment after replase.
Investigating a new treatment option for Diffuse Midline Glioma involving engineering a patient’s own cancer-killing T-cells to create super-targeted “CAR T-cells”, then returning the CAR T-cells to the patient so they can home in and attack the cancer cells.
Research
Dr Tessa Gargett hopes CAR T-Cell therapy can be effective on Diffuse Midline Glioma, a type of brain cancer which only affects children.
