Recipient: A/Professor Geoff McCowage
Institute: Children's Hospital at Westmead
Funding: $300,000 July 2022 to June 2025 (The Kids' Cancer Project: $150,000, The Cooper Rice-Brading Foundation: $150,000)
With poor prognosis and high relapse rates, there is an urgent need for new therapeutic approaches for Ewing sarcoma.
Ewing sarcoma is a rare, but highly aggressive malignant tumour of bone and soft tissue, most commonly diagnosed in children, adolescents and young adults. Patients with localised disease have a survival rate of 65-75 percent. But for those with advanced Ewing sarcoma, survival rates are as low as 25 percent.
No novel therapeutic agents have been successfully introduced into front line treatment. This project aims to change that, examining the safety and tolerability of adding a newer class of drugs, the tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), into treatment protocols.
Read more: Behind the science
INTER-EWING-1 is an international clinical trial program seeking to improve outcomes in patients with Ewing sarcoma. Paediatric and adolescent cancer centres around Australia will join with their international colleagues in this major study.