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Haematological malignancies, although a broad range of specific disease types, continue to show considerable overlap in classification, and patients are...

Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF/CCN2) has been shown previously to be aberrantly expressed in a high proportion of paediatric precursor B cell acute...

One of the great success stories of modern medicine is undoubtedly the remarkable improvement in outcome for childhood cancer, achieved through the work of...

This study describes the development and molecular characterization of a panel of patient-derived infant leukemia oncogene xenografts and their sensitivity...

This study suggests that germ-line DICER1 mutations make a clinically significant contribution to PinB, establishing DICER1 as an important susceptibility...

Relapse and acquired drug resistance in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (T-ALL) remains a significant clinical problem.

Rishi S. Kotecha MB ChB (Hons) MRCPCH FRACP PhD Co-Head, Leukaemia Translational Research rishi.kotecha@health.wa.gov.au Co-Head, Leukaemia

Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) is a proven curative therapy for children with high-risk myeloid malignancies. Disease relapse, transplant-related mortality and graft versus host disease (GvHD) are the main causes of treatment failure and death post-transplant. The optimum pretransplant conditioning regimen is yet to be defined. There is limited data regarding the use of busulfan, fludarabine and melphalan as a myeloablative conditioning regimen in children receiving HSCT for myeloid malignancies.

B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL) is the most common pediatric cancer. Current therapeutic regimens have improved 5-year event-free survival rates to 90%, however clinical outcomes for high-risk subgroups, such as BCR-ABL1+ B-ALL and relapsed ALL, remain poor. In addition, 16% of newly diagnosed children with ALL present with vertebral compression fractures. Moreover, 16% of children with ALL undergoing glucocorticoid therapy also experience a high incidence of vertebral fractures, indicating that bone health may be compromised by both leukemia progression and osteotoxicity of chemotherapy.

Mesothelioma is a cancer derived from mesothelial cells, most commonly arising from the pleura or the peritoneum. Immune checkpoint therapy (ICT) has shown survival benefit for pleural mesothelioma, but little is known about the response in peritoneal mesothelioma. Most preclinical mesothelioma models involve subcutaneous cancer cell implantation, which lacks the relevant tumour microenvironment of peritoneal mesothelioma and does not resemble the clinical presentation.