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A team of world-leading scientists has secured $5 million in funding from the Leukaemia and Lymphoma Society to advance the fight against leukaemia in children with Down syndrome.
Each year in Australia, around 120 children are diagnosed with brain cancer, the leading cause of cancer-related death in young people.
Our local legend, brain cancer researcher Jacob Byrne, has crossed the finish line of his final marathon, completing his Big Run for Little Brains - 30 marathons in 30 days, covering 1266km across Perth’s local government areas.
The WA Kids Cancer Centre has a suite of world-leading research projects to unlock new treatments for childhood cancers.
Gliomas account for nearly 30% of all primary central nervous system (CNS) tumors in children and adolescents and young adults (AYA), contributing to significant morbidity and mortality. The updated molecular classification of gliomas defines molecularly diverse subtypes with a spectrum of tumors associated with age-distinct incidence.
KMT2A-rearranged acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) represents a high risk subtype of childhood ALL. Historical treatment strategies have comprised of intensification with conventional chemotherapy. However, outcomes have remained consistently poor compared to the advances that have been seen for other ALL subtypes, particularly for infants diagnosed before their first birthday
An in-depth investigation of gene regulation and cell populations at sites of fetal blood-cell production provides clues as to why children with Down’s syndrome are predisposed to developing leukaemia.
T cells engineered to express chimeric-antigen receptors (CAR-T cells) can effectively control relapsed and refractory haematological malignancies in the clinic. However, the successes of CAR-T cell therapy have not been recapitulated in solid tumours due to a range of barriers such as immunosuppression, poor infiltration, and tumour heterogeneity.
Despite significant advances, outcomes for children with Down syndrome (DS, trisomy 21) who develop acute lymphoblastic leukemia remain poor. Reports of large DS-ALL cohorts have shown that children with DS have inferior event-free survival and overall survival compared to children without DS.
Each year, approximately 1000 children in Australia and New Zealand, aged 0–14 years, are diagnosed with cancer. Despite paediatric cancer accounting for less than 1% of all cancer cases, the impact on their families and communities is profound and disproportionate.