Posted On: October 24, 2016
Brain Tumour Awareness Week is a timely reminder there is still much to be done to help children with cancer. The Kids’ Cancer Project is thrilled to be playing an important part.
“We are proud to be currently supporting seven research projects that are helping children with brain cancer, the most common cause of cancer-related death in children,” said Owen Finegan, Chief Executive of The Kids’ Cancer Project.
“This financial year we have committed over $4 million across 26 projects," he said. "This includes $885,978 to researchers across four world class Australian Institutes that are specifically targeting brain cancer.”
Thanks to community support, The Kids’ Cancer Project has committed more than $260,000 to researchers at the Institute of Molecular Bioscience (IMB), at The University of Queensland.
Read more: Novel targets to treat medulloblastoma.
IMB Director Professor Wainwright wants a future where no children suffer deadly brain tumours.
"Current therapies take a one-size-fits-all approach," he said. "So the prospect of targeted treatments is incredibly exciting and would revolutionise treatments world-wide."
“My goal is to cure a child of this awful illness and put myself and my staff out of a job. Thanks to The Kids’ Cancer Project this could become a reality,” said Professor Wainwright.
Medulloblastoma is mainly a childhood aggressive tumour which accounts for approximately 20 - 25 per cent of all childhood brain tumours, making it the most common paediatric brain malignancy. A major portion of treated children suffer from long-term side-effects due to the damaging effects of current treatment protocols.
The Kids’ Cancer Project is supporting a
QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute research project to develop Personalised Medicine approaches to treating this paediatric brain cancer.
We are also supporting a
project into Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma (DIPG) a devastating childhood cancer. With very few treatment options and no cure the only way we can help children with DIPG is through medical research as Dr David Ziegler, a researcher at the Children’s Cancer Institute and Paediatric Oncologist at Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick explained.
“DIPG is one of the most aggressive brain cancers that occurs in children," said Dr Ziegler. "Essentially it’s incurable. From the day a child is diagnosed with DIPG we have no effective treatment.”
Dr Nick Gottardo, Head of Brain Tumour Research Program at
Telethon Kids’ Institute in Western Australia is leading projects into brain cancer, through two grants totalling nearly $190,000.
Read more: Using targeted chemotherapies to reduce intensity of radiotherapy in medulloblastoma.
“We need to think smarter and develop better therapies that are more targeted against brain cancer,” Dr Gottardo said.
The Kids' Cancer Project thanks all donors, volunteers and supporters for helping to fund the vital childhood cancer research that will make a brain tumour free future a reality.
Donate to research and help find more effective treatments for kids with cancer.