Zero Childhood Cancer is the most ambitious childhood cancer research initiative ever undertaken for children with cancer in Australia. This national child cancer personalised medicine program is led by Children’s Cancer Institute in partnership with Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network, and will involve all paediatric oncology units across Australia.
These hospitals will work collaboratively with a range of key Medical Research Institutes both nationally and internationally who are part of the Zero Childhood Cancer program (click on map below to open in new tab).
Pilot study to clinical trial
In order to cure every child, we need to develop tailored treatments to target each child’s individual cancer. This pilot study, run in partnership with clinicians from the Kids Cancer Centre at Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick and research and clinical partners around Australia, commenced in 2015. With over 35 children already enrolled, the program is well underway.
As a show of support from the highest levels of the Commonwealth, in September last year, our patron, His Excellency Sir Peter Cosgrove, Governor-General of Australia, officially opened the hub of Zero Childhood Cancer – the $1.5M Australian Cancer Research Foundation (ACRF) Child Cancer Personalised Medicine Centre.
With community help, our aim is that the clinical trial will run 2017-2020, with up to 400 children participating. Right now, we’re getting ready to receive, process and analyse samples of patients’ tumours from partner hospitals around Australia, and to test them against drugs approved for adult and child cancers. By the trial’s end, our goal is to have shown that personalised medicine improves treatment and survivorship for children with the highest risk of treatment failure, which is a key step in our vision of one day curing 100% of children with cancer.
To find out more about the program, visit the Zero Childhood Cancer website.
Read this article and more stories from lab bench to a child’s bedside in our Autumn issue of LabNotes (pdf, 480KB).
