To mark Childhood Cancer Awareness month, we celebrate the recent Australian research breakthroughs in some of the most life-threatening childhood cancers.
Over the years, innovative cancer research projects have increased cancer survival rates to all-time highs. For childhood cancer patients, the last thirty years of research has seen survival rates increase from 69.3% to 84.1%.
Cure Cancer , one of Australia’s leading cancer research charities, supports funding into all types of cancer including childhood cancer. Researchers like Dr Orazio Vittorio and A/Prof Nick Gottardo are at the forefront of ground-breaking discoveries that could change the outlook for children with childhood cancer all over the world.
Neuroblastoma
Neuroblastoma accounts for 15% of total childhood cancer deaths and sadly Glioblastoma has the worst survival rate of all cancers, with only 5% of children surviving five years past their diagnosis.
Cure Cancer Alumni Doctor Orazio Vittorio and Prof. Maria Kavallaris have made a significant breakthrough in treating childhood brain cancer by utilising a common element: copper. By removing copper from the blood, they’ve discovered that you can destroy some of the deadliest cancers that are resistant to immunotherapy.
While immunotherapy , a treatment that works through a patient’s immune system to kill the cancers, has proven to be a development for many cancer patients, some cancers stay hidden from current immunotherapies.
Dr Orazio Vittorio and his team from the Children’s Cancer Institute in Sydney and UNSW Sydney published the findings in the prestigious Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. Cancer cells such as brain cancer are known to ‘feed’ on copper, often having up to six times the normal levels of the metal inside the tumour cells. Dr Vittorio and colleagues studied tumour samples from more than 90 patients with neuroblastoma and 90 patients with gliomas.
According to Dr Vittorio, these two cancers express PD-L1 as a way to hide from the immune system, explaining why these two cancers are so deadly. By looking at the human biopsies, the researchers found a correlation between high levels of copper and increased expression of PD-L1. The researchers then showed for the first time in trials that copper levels could control the expression of PD-L1 in cancer cells.
Neuroblastoma claims more lives of children younger than five than any other cancer. One of the patients on the trial is a little boy called Luciano, who was diagnosed with the disease at 14 months and endured three operations and eight rounds of chemotherapy. Luciano’s mother, Maria says, “We are lucky because he responded well to treatment, but there were so many kids who have been lost. This research will help give hope to more families and children in the future.”
Cure Cancer CEO Nikki Kinloch adds, “We are delighted that the funding we provided has had a direct impact on the future treatment of childhood brain cancer.”
This collaborative study includes the Children’s Cancer Institute, UNSW Sydney, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and the University of Bologna. The work was supported by grants from Cure Cancer, Tour de Cure, and Ross Trust Foundation.
Childhood brain cancer refers to cancerous brain tumours, and are the most significant cause of death by disease for children in Australia. Sadly, it is estimated that there will be 100 new cases diagnosed this year in Australia alone.
A/ Prof Nick Gottardo is working hard to improve the lives of childhood cancer patients and their families. Today, he is the Head of Oncology and Haematology at Perth Children’s Hospital and co-head of Telethon Kids Institute’s Brain Tumour Research Team with a research career spanning across 25 years.
Thanks to vital funding support from Cure Cancer in 2016 and 2017, Nick’s research has gone from strength to strength. His recent breakthrough has the potential to dramatically improve the lives of children who are diagnosed with brain cancer. At present, survival rates for children with brain cancer are slim, and survivors are often left with severe permanent side effects, which can have lasting impact on their quality of life.
A/ Prof Gottardo is determined to change this and hopes his research will considerably improve the way we treat brain cancer. “We need to find better, more targeted therapies with fewer side effects so we can give these kids the best possible chance of a cure and long, dignified lives," Nick says.
His research looked at the most common malignant childhood brain tumour, medulloblastoma (MB). Medulloblastoma is a cancerous tumor that starts in the region of the brain at the base of the skull and these tumors tend to spread to other parts of the brain and to the spinal cord.
Using high-throughput robotic technology, Nick’s laboratory screened over 3,000 drugs against a panel of MB cell lines derived from patients. They showed a drug, Prexasertib, stops DNA repair and kills brain cancer cells without causing damage to healthy brain tissue.
These drugs will allow us to improve the efficacy of radiation treatment, reducing the amount of radiation that is needed to treat children with brain cancer and the harmful side effects that go with it.
Nick’s breakthrough has led to a clinical trial for children with MB. If successful, the trial could achieve a better quality of life and ultimately, increase the survival of these patients and others in the future.
Valued by his patients, their families and the research community alike, Nick has gained international and national recognition for his research. He’s been named a runner up for Cure Cancer’s Researcher of the Year 2019, finalist for the Western Australian of the Year 2018 and received the Collaborative Researcher of the Year Award in 2019.
Nick’s team is now testing these drugs in other childhood and adult brain cancers to determine if this treatment may benefit even more patients. He says, “Our aim is to take the findings from our lab into the clinic, and that’s why funding is so important. The ultimate goal is to improve the lives of children with cancer and their families.”
To show your support for childhood cancer researchers like Orazio and Nick this Childhood Awareness Month, make a donation today.