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Nick Gottardo MBChB FRACP PhD Head of Paediatric and Adolescent Oncology and Haematology, Perth Children’s Hospital; Co-head, Brain Tumour Research

Platinum-based chemotherapy in combination with anti-PD-L1 antibodies has shown promising results in mesothelioma. However, the immunological mechanisms underlying its efficacy are not well understood and there are no predictive biomarkers to guide treatment decisions.

Antibodies that target immune checkpoints such as cytotoxic T lymphocyte antigen 4, programmed cell death protein/ligand 1 are approved for treatment of multiple cancer types. 

Children receiving treatment for acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are at high risk of invasive fungal disease (IFD). Evidence from pediatric studies support the efficacy of antifungal prophylaxis in reducing the burden of IFD in children receiving therapy for AML, yet existing antifungal agents have specific limitations and comparative data to inform the optimal prophylactic approach are lacking.

Siblings of children with cancer have been shown to experience disruption in multiple domains including family, school, and friendships. Existing literature on siblings' experiences focuses on older children or on a broad range of ages.

Burn injury in children causes prolonged systemic effects on physiology and metabolism leading to increased morbidity and mortality, yet much remains undefined regarding the metabolic trajectory towards specific health outcomes.

Clinical management of breast cancer (BC) metastasis remains an unmet need as it accounts for 90% of BC-associated mortality. Although the luminal subtype, which represents >70% of BC cases, is generally associated with a favorable outcome, it is susceptible to metastatic relapse as late as 15 years after treatment discontinuation.

ZFTA-RELA (formerly known as c11orf-RELA) fused supratentorial ependymoma has been recognized as a novel entity in the 2016 WHO classification of CNS tumors and further defined in the recent 2021 edition.

Molecular profiling of the tumour immune microenvironment (TIME) has enabled the rational choice of immunotherapies in some adult cancers. In contrast, the TIME of paediatric cancers is relatively unexplored. We speculated that a more refined appreciation of the TIME in childhood cancers, rather than a reliance on commonly used biomarkers such as tumour mutation burden (TMB), neoantigen load and PD-L1 expression, is an essential prerequisite for improved immunotherapies in childhood solid cancers.

Cancer continues to be a leading cause of death globally. However, there remains a significant disparity in the reported incidence of cancer in developed countries, estimated to be 295.3 cases per 100,000 people, compared with only 115.7 in developing countries. Some of the reasons for this variation include lack of robust data collection with limited reporting systems, and insufficient data availability in the registries of these developing nations.