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Delivering cancer control at scale for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities is a national priority that requires Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leadership and codesign, as well as significant involvement of the Aboriginal community-controlled health sector. The unique genomic variation observed among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples may have implications for standard and precision medicine.
Recent research showed that precision medicine can identify new treatment strategies for patients with childhood cancers. However, it is unclear which patients will benefit most from precision-guided treatment.
The main mission of the Australian and New Zealand Children's Haematology and Oncology Group is to develop and facilitate local access to the world's leading evidence-based clinical trials for all paediatric cancers, including brain tumours, as soon as practically possible.
Patient-derived orthotopic xenograft (PDOX) mouse models are considered the gold standard for evidence-based preclinical research in pediatric neuro-oncology. This protocol describes the generation of PDOX models by intracranial implantation of human pediatric brain cancer cells into immune-deficient mice, and their continued propagation to establish cohorts of animals for preclinical research.
Co-Head, Brain Tumour Research
Head of Paediatric and Adolescent Oncology and Haematology, Perth Children’s Hospital; Co-head, Brain Tumour Research Program, The Kids Research Institute Australia
Mothers of children diagnosed with cancer have been shown to experience high rates of psychological distress and poor physical health. Pregnancy further increases the healthcare needs of mothers due to the marked physiological changes and psychological adaptations.
Previous preclinical and clinical trials have shown promising antitumour activity and toxicity profile when employing the ‘Synergy between Immunotherapy and Radiotherapy’ (SITAR) strategy. Approximately, one in seven radiation therapy studies currently recruiting is investigating SITAR.
Pineoblastoma is a rare brain tumor usually diagnosed in children. Given its rarity, no pineoblastoma-specific trials have been conducted. Studies have included pineoblastoma accruing for other embryonal tumors over the past 30 years.
Medulloblastoma is the most common childhood brain cancer. Mainstay treatments of radiation and chemotherapy have not changed in decades and new treatment approaches are crucial for the improvement of clinical outcomes. To date, immunotherapies for medulloblastoma have been unsuccessful, and studies investigating the immune microenvironment of the disease and the impact of current therapies are limited.