Dr Nick Gottardo
Personalised medicine for childhood cancers in West Australia is a step closer thanks to the Zero Childhood Cancer program’s state clinical trial launched today.
Following the national launch in September, scientists from thirteen leading Australian and international research institutes, including The Kids Research Institute Australia, and doctors from all eight of Australia’s kids’ cancer centres will work together to identify and recommend new treatment options. These will be specifically tailored to suit the individual cancers of children with the most aggressive cancers whose chance of survival on standard treatments is less than 30%.
The Zero Childhood Cancer program - which is led by Children's Cancer Institute and the Kids Cancer Centre at Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick - recognises that each child’s cancer is unique, so they respond differently to anti-cancer treatment. It’s hoped that detailed laboratory analysis of tumour samples will help identify the drugs most likely to kill each child’s specific cancer.
More than 250 Australian children, and an estimated 25 West Australian children, will be enrolled in the program over the next three years, bringing the most advanced diagnostic technologies close to home. Data from the program will be shared with all clinical and research partners around Australia, in Europe and USA.
The West Australian trial is being rolled out by Princess Margaret Hospital (PMH) for Children in partnership with the The Kids Cancer Centre at The Kids Research Institute Australia.
Dr Nick Gottardo, Head of the Paediatric Oncology and Haematology Department at PMH and co-Head of Brain Tumour Research at The Kids Research Institute Australia, said the Zero Childhood Cancer program is a potential game-changer in how we treat high-risk cancer.
“This personalised medicine program is an exciting initiative that has the potential to revolutionise the way in which treatment decisions about childhood cancer are made. We’re looking forward to enrolling children in this clinical trial at our hospital, starting in coming months.”
“Despite the dramatic increase in childhood cancer survival rates over the last sixty years from virtually 0 to 80%, three children and adolescents die every week in Australia from cancer. It’s hoped this trial will increase survival rates for children with the highest risk of treatment failure or relapse and give their families hope.”
Professor Michelle Haber AM, Executive Director of Children’s Cancer Institute and Research Lead for Zero Childhood Cancer, said personalised treatment gives kids with the most aggressive cancers the best chance of surviving their disease because it is based on reliable scientific information, such as individual genetic mutations, unique to that child’s cancer.
“Using the latest molecular profiling techniques and laboratory testing of patient cancer cells with anti-cancer drugs, Zero Childhood Cancer will give the most detailed diagnosis possible in Australia to date for children with the most aggressive cancers. It is one of the most complex and comprehensive personalised medicine programs in the world,” she said.
Of the over 950 Australian children and adolescents diagnosed with cancer each year, 150 are diagnosed with cancer types with less than a 30% survival rate, and a further 60 relapse and then have less than a 30% chance of cure. It’s these children – including those suffering from aggressive brain tumours, sarcomas, infant leukaemias and neuroblastomas - who will benefit from the Zero Childhood Cancer Program.
The trial will be open to every Australian child with high-risk childhood cancer regardless of the underlying type/diagnosis. The program is free to those children who meet the clinical trial enrolment criteria and enrolment is through their treating oncologist.
To find out more about the trial visit www.zerochildhoodcancer.org.au.
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About The Kids Research Institute Australia
The Kids Research Institute Australia is one of the largest, and most successful medical research institutes in Australia, comprising a dedicated and diverse team of more than 500 staff and students.
We've created a bold blueprint that brings together community, researchers, practitioners, policy makers and funders, who share our vision to improve the health and wellbeing of children through excellence in research.
The Institute is headed by leading paediatrician and infectious diseases expert Professor Jonathan Carapetis, with Founding Director Professor Fiona Stanley now Patron.
The Kids is independent and not-for-profit. The majority of funding comes from our success in winning national and international competitive research grants. We also receive significant philanthropic support from corporate Australia and the community.
About Zero Childhood Cancer
The Zero Childhood Cancer Program is a national initiative of Children’s Cancer Institute and The Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network. The Program is led by scientists and clinicians from Children’s Cancer Institute and Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick and is one of the most exciting childhood cancer research initiatives ever undertaken in Australia, to tackle the most serious cases of infant, childhood and adolescent cancer. (The clinical trial is open in Sydney with other cities set to open in a staged roll-out over coming months.) For more information, visit www.zerochildhoodcancer.org.au
About Children’s Cancer Institute
Originally founded by two fathers of children with cancer in 1976, Children’s Cancer Institute is the only independent medical research institute in Australia wholly dedicated to research into the causes, prevention and cure of childhood cancer. Forty years on, our vision remains unchanged – to save the lives of all children with cancer and to eliminate their suffering. The Institute has grown to now employ more than 220 researchers, operational staff and students, and has established a national and international reputation for scientific excellence. Our focus is on translational research, and we have an integrated team of laboratory researchers and clinician scientists who work together in partnership to discover new treatments which can be progressed from the lab bench to the beds of children on wards in our hospitals as quickly as possible. These new treatments are specifically targeting childhood cancers, so we can develop safer and more effective drugs and drug combinations that will minimise side-effects and ultimately give children with cancer the best chance of a cure with the highest possible quality of life. More at www.ccia.org.au
About Kids Cancer Centre
The Kids Cancer Centre (KCC) at Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick has been treating children with cancer and blood diseases in NSW, Australia and the Asia-Pacific region for nearly 50 years. Almost two thirds of children treated for cancer or leukaemia at the Centre are enrolled on clinical trials, in a unique model where research and clinical care are one, aimed at ensuring the best possible care for children and their families. During that time the survival rates for children with cancer have gone from 10 per cent to nearly 80 per cent. Clinical and research staff from the Centre have made major international and national contributions to the expansion of knowledge in the area: from important discoveries around bone marrow transplantation, chemotherapy for relapsed solid tumours and leukaemia, to the invention of novel anti-cancer drug combinations and minimal residual disease (MRD) testing in ALL. Centre staff have been leaders in devising new methods of outreach and home nursing, and in developing modern approaches to the bereaved family. These achievements have been founded on academic excellence and clinical expertise. In the past five years alone, Centre staff have published over 200 papers in peer reviewed medical and scientific journals, and have been awarded more than $60 million in competitive grant funding. Over the past 20 years a total of eight clinical staff have received Order of Australia honours for their work http://www.kids-cancer.org/
About Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick
Each year, Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick cares for more than 69,000 seriously ill and injured children from across NSW, Australia and beyond in a family-centred, multidisciplinary, expert environment. Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick is one the country’s leading centres in paediatric clinical and research excellence and is part of The Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network (SCHN), the largest network of hospital and services for children in Australia. For more information visit www.schn.health.nsw.gov.au