Childhood cancer

There are approximately 80 different types of malignant (cancerous) brain tumours that occur in children, and 190 children are diagnosed with childhood brain cancer each year. The VPCC Next Generation Precision Medicine program aims to significantly improve the treatment, survival and quality of life for children with cancer, with a special focus on brain cancer.

With funding from the Children’s Cancer Foundation since 2017 and additional assistance from the Australian Government’s Medical Research Future Fund (MRFF) and Robert Connor Dawes Foundation (RCD) from 2021, the Next Generation Precision Medicine has gone to the next level in our quest for better cures.

Thanks to active collaborations with 35 cancer research institutes, universities and academic medical centres, we have established the Childhood Cancer Model Atlas (CCMA) – the world’s largest collection of high-risk paediatric cancer cell lines, providing a unique, open-source facility to cancer researchers globally.

The CCMA is a collection of tissue samples from more than 300+ cell-lines, giving us an opportunity to identify new therapies and biomarkers of response for paediatric cancers of greatest unmet medical need. Read more about VPCC Next Generation Precision Medicine program

Lead | Professor Ron Firestein

Sarcomas are a rare type of cancer that originate in the connective tissue of the body, including fat, muscle, bone and cartilage. They can develop anywhere in the body and are among the most common types of solid tumours in children.

Sarcomas that arise in the bone (osteosarcoma, Ewing’s sarcoma) and muscle (rhabdomyosarcoma) are the most predominant in children. Survival rates for children with sarcomas have remained stagnant for the last four decades. Curative treatment, effective in 70 per cent of patients, often has lifelong negative impacts.

Our sarcoma program includes both clinical and discovery research projects utilizing a broad range of patient tissue, in vitro and in vivo preclinical models, and techniques. Read more about our Sarcoma Program

Lead | Associate Professor Jason Cain

Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) results from the uncontrolled proliferation of immature blood cells in the bone marrow. AML accounts for 5-10 per cent of all childhood cancers and has the worst prognosis of any childhood leukaemia. Nearly half of all children diagnosed with AML will relapse following treatment and many will develop treatment refractory disease. Treatment options for relapsed or refractory AML are limited, with invasive bone marrow transplantation often the only possibility for cure.

Our childhood AML program aims to identify critical mechanisms underpinning AML development, relapse and therapy resistance. A combination of in vitro and in vivo pre-clinical AML models derived from patient samples are utilised to identify and test new treatment approaches.

Team | Dr Catherine Carmichael, Steve Lin

Childhood cancer poses a significant scientific and medical challenge, and within this field, immunotherapy and cancer vaccines emerge as promising, less toxic treatment options. These innovative strategies harness the innate potential of the immune system to selectively target and eradicate cancer cells, offering the potential for enhanced survival rates and improved quality of life for paediatric patients. In the ongoing battle against childhood cancer, these approaches represent a hopeful avenue for progress.

In line with this mission, this program leverages state-of-the-art immunopeptidomics and proteomics technologies. The Faridi group’s aim is to pinpoint novel targets for cancer vaccines and immunotherapies customised for childhood cancer. By scrutinising antigenic peptides expressed on cancer cells, the team endeavours to refine treatment precision and effectiveness, ultimately reducing adverse effects and enhancing the well-being of young cancer patients. This cutting-edge research forms a vital part of our commitment to advancing the field and providing new hope in the fight against childhood cancer.

Team | Dr Pouya Faridi, Dr Dongbin Jin, Dr Terry Lim

The Paediatric cancer informatics project is developing and applying state-of-the-art computational approaches to identify new therapeutic targets and biomarkers for low-survival paediatric cancers.

Over the past five years, we have been working as part of a multidisciplinary team, in collaboration with wet-lab scientists and paediatric oncologists to establish the computational framework and analytical methods underlying the Childhood Cancer Model Atlas (CCMA). The ultimate goal of the CCMA is to facilitate ‘big data” driven discovery of new therapeutic targets for paediatric cancers of lowest survival.

Team | Dr Xin (Claire) Sun, Vikesh Ajith, Monty Panday