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The Kids Research Institute Australia's Brain Tumour Research team will develop and implement cutting-edge technologies to revolutionise the speed of brain cancer diagnosis for WA children, thanks to more than $200,000 from Telethon.
Eight childhood cancer researchers have been awarded over $2 million in transformative grants from Cancer Council WA to advance their pioneering work in improving cancer treatments and outcomes for patients in Western Australia and around the world.
Nick Raelene Gottardo Endersby MBChB FRACP PhD BSc (Hons) PhD Co-Head, Brain Tumour Research team; Head of Oncology and Haematology, Perth Children’s
Gliomas account for nearly 30% of all primary central nervous system (CNS) tumors in children and adolescents and young adults (AYA), contributing to significant morbidity and mortality. The updated molecular classification of gliomas defines molecularly diverse subtypes with a spectrum of tumors associated with age-distinct incidence.
Tropomyosin receptor kinase (TRK) fusions are detected in less than 2% of central nervous system tumors. There are limited data on the clinical course of affected patients.
KMT2A-rearranged acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) represents a high risk subtype of childhood ALL. Historical treatment strategies have comprised of intensification with conventional chemotherapy. However, outcomes have remained consistently poor compared to the advances that have been seen for other ALL subtypes, particularly for infants diagnosed before their first birthday
Acute lymphoblastic leukemia expressing the gamma delta T-cell receptor (γδ T-ALL) is a poorly understood disease. We studied 200 children with γδ T-ALL from 13 clinical study groups to understand the clinical and genetic features of this disease. We found age and genetic drivers were significantly associated with outcome.
Each year, approximately 1000 children in Australia and New Zealand, aged 0–14 years, are diagnosed with cancer. Despite paediatric cancer accounting for less than 1% of all cancer cases, the impact on their families and communities is profound and disproportionate.
T cells engineered to express chimeric-antigen receptors (CAR-T cells) can effectively control relapsed and refractory haematological malignancies in the clinic. However, the successes of CAR-T cell therapy have not been recapitulated in solid tumours due to a range of barriers such as immunosuppression, poor infiltration, and tumour heterogeneity.
Many mechanisms underlying an effective immunotherapy-induced antitumour response are transient and critically time dependent. This is equally true for several immunological events in the tumour microenvironment induced by other cancer treatments. Immune checkpoint therapy (ICT) has proven to be very effective in the treatment of some cancers, but unfortunately, with many cancer types, most patients do not experience a benefit.