Childhood cancer research has made significant strides in recent years, offering hope to young patients and their families with new innovations in treatments.
Increasing survival rates and giving hope to families hit by these horrible diseases is vital and can only be achieved through further childhood cancer research.
With more research and improved care, we can enhance the treatments, ongoing management and outlook for families hit by devastating childhood cancers.
Childhood Cancer Support
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.
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 young people with hard-to-access cancers like brain and spine 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.
Finding more targeted treatments for children with neuroblastoma to reduce the life-long side effects that are currently experienced with existing therapies.
Researcher
Professor Yeesim Khew-Goodall is using innovative stem cell modelling to gain a greater understanding of neuroblastoma, in order to identify and test new precision treatments for the disease.
Investigating a new treatment option for Diffuse Midline Glioma, 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
Dr Tessa Gargett hopes CAR T-Cell therapy can be effective on Diffuse Midline Glioma, a type of brain cancer which only affects children.
Enhancing routine follow-up care for children recovering from solid cancers by bringing ‘quality of life’ assessments into the digital world and developing an online tool to better engage with young cancer survivors and meet their ongoing needs.
Researcher
Dr Michala Short believes her online tool will be the missing piece in follow-up care for children with cancer, to help them communicate how their cancer and its treatment has impacted on them and on their quality of life.
