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News & Events

Despite national and global reports of rising incidences of cancer affecting children and young people, a new analysis has found rates of childhood cancer have remained unchanged over the last 30 years in South Australia and the Northern Territory.

News & Events

A world-first study involving more than 100 cancer researchers and clinicians across Australia – including from The Kids Research Institute Australia and Perth Children’s Hospital – has shown that precision medicine can significantly improve outcomes for children with high-risk cancer.

News & Events

The generous support of West Australians through Channel 7’s Telethon Trust will help support crucial child health research at The Kids Research Institute Australia in 2022.

Research

Time-critical transcriptional events in the immune microenvironment are important for response to immune checkpoint blockade (ICB), yet these events are difficult to characterise and remain incompletely understood. Here, we present whole tumor RNA sequencing data in the context of treatment with ICB in murine models of AB1 mesothelioma and Renca renal cell cancer. 

Research

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.

Research

Event-free survival considers other adverse events in addition to mortality. It therefore provides a more complete understanding of the effectiveness and consequences of treatment than standard survival measures, but is rarely reported at the population level for childhood cancer.

Research

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.

Research

Malignant central nervous system (CNS) cancers are among the most difficult to treat, with low rates of survival and a high likelihood of recurrence. This is primarily due to their location within the CNS, hindering adequate drug delivery and tumour access via surgery. Furthermore, CNS cancer cells are highly plastic, an adaptive property that enables them to bypass targeted treatment strategies and develop drug resistance.

Research

Immunotherapy has revolutionised the treatment of cancers by harnessing the power of the immune system to eradicate malignant tissue. However, it is well recognised that some cancers are highly resistant to these therapies, which is in part attributed to the immunosuppressive landscape of the tumour microenvironment (TME). The contexture of the TME is highly heterogeneous and contains a complex architecture of immune, stromal, vascular and tumour cells in addition to acellular components such as the extracellular matrix. While understanding the dynamics of the TME has been instrumental in predicting durable responses to immunotherapy and developing new treatment strategies, recent evidence challenges the fundamental paradigms of how tumours can effectively subvert immunosurveillance. Here, we discuss the various immunosuppressive features of the TME and how fine-tuning these mechanisms, rather than ablating them completely, may result in a more comprehensive and balanced anti-tumour response.

Research

Unlike adults, malignant melanoma in children and adolescents is rare. In adult melanoma, significant progress in understanding tumor biology and new treatments, including targeted therapies and immunotherapy have markedly improved overall survival. In sharp contrast, there is a paucity of data on the biology and clinical behavior of pediatric melanoma. We report a national case series of all pediatric and adolescent malignant melanoma presenting to ANZCHOG Childhood Cancer Centers in Australia and New Zealand.