Making treatment easier for kids with cancer

The Children’s Cancer CoLab (CoLab)’s Transformative Therapies Impact Program has awarded grants to 4 research teams.

The teams are looking into options for fighting childhood cancer that are more targeted, more effective and less toxic. The funded projects are:

• Professor Vihandha Wickramasinghe from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI): exploring mRNA-based therapies to help suppress tumours and support the development of treatments that may one day be taken at home.
• Professor Lee Wong from Monash University: investigating ways to slow and control the growth of high-grade glioma – a fast-growing and aggressive childhood cancer.
• Dr Deborah Meyran from the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre: investigating a new drug to help the immune system fight high-risk tumours.
• Professor Paul Monagle from the University of Melbourne and Murdoch Children’s Research Institute (MCRI): examining ways to reduce the risk of blood clots to make a common childhood leukaemia treatment safer.

Each year, more than 1,000 children and adolescents in Australia are diagnosed with cancer. Most current cancer treatments were originally developed for adults. As a result, they are less effective in young patients and may cause lifelong side effects.

Lucy Fay Francazio was diagnosed with Stage III anaplastic large cell lymphoma at age 11. Now, as a young adult, she faces cognitive fatigue and working-memory challenges linked to her treatment.

CoLab’s Transformative Therapies Impact Program aims to:

• make children’s cancer treatments more effective
• reduce these long-term and painful side effects.

The funded teams will explore how to improve quality of life for people like Lucy.

CoLab is driving cutting-edge research to tackle childhood cancer. It was backed by a $35 million investment from the Victorian Government, a $10 million commitment from the Children’s Cancer Foundation and a $10 million commitment from My Room Children's Cancer Charity.

Read more about Lucy’s story on the Children's Cancer CoLab website.