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Personalised medicine for childhood cancers in West Australia is a step closer thanks to the Zero Childhood Cancer program’s state clinical trial launched today
Nick Gottardo MBChB FRACP PhD Co-Head, Brain Tumour Research team; Head of Oncology and Haematology, Perth Children’s Hospital nicholas.gottardo@
Platinum-based chemotherapy in combination with anti-PD-L1 antibodies has shown promising results in mesothelioma. However, the immunological mechanisms underlying its efficacy are not well understood and there are no predictive biomarkers to guide treatment decisions.
Molecular profiling of the tumour immune microenvironment (TIME) has enabled the rational choice of immunotherapies in some adult cancers. In contrast, the TIME of paediatric cancers is relatively unexplored. We speculated that a more refined appreciation of the TIME in childhood cancers, rather than a reliance on commonly used biomarkers such as tumour mutation burden (TMB), neoantigen load and PD-L1 expression, is an essential prerequisite for improved immunotherapies in childhood solid cancers.
ZFTA-RELA (formerly known as c11orf-RELA) fused supratentorial ependymoma has been recognized as a novel entity in the 2016 WHO classification of CNS tumors and further defined in the recent 2021 edition.
Clinical management of breast cancer (BC) metastasis remains an unmet need as it accounts for 90% of BC-associated mortality. Although the luminal subtype, which represents >70% of BC cases, is generally associated with a favorable outcome, it is susceptible to metastatic relapse as late as 15 years after treatment discontinuation.
Cancer continues to be a leading cause of death globally. However, there remains a significant disparity in the reported incidence of cancer in developed countries, estimated to be 295.3 cases per 100,000 people, compared with only 115.7 in developing countries. Some of the reasons for this variation include lack of robust data collection with limited reporting systems, and insufficient data availability in the registries of these developing nations.
Six scientists from The Kids Research Institute Australia have been named finalists across five categories in the 2026 Premier's Science Awards.
A leading WA cancer researcher has been named the Cure Cancer 2026 Researcher of the Year for his groundbreaking work in paediatric leukaemia.
Eight childhood cancer researchers have been awarded over $2 million in transformative grants from Cancer Council WA to advance their pioneering work in improving cancer treatments and outcomes for patients in Western Australia and around the world.