Moving closer towards Zero Childhood Cancer

The Zero Childhood Cancer program, jointly run by the Sydney Children's Hospitals Network and the Children’s Cancer Institute, has received a further $1 million from the NSW Government.

The funding builds on the $5.63 million awarded to the program in 2015, and will support life-saving work into childhood brain cancer research.

The program currently offers Australia’s first ever personalised medicine program for children with high-risk or relapsed cancer, and works with the Federal Government's Australian Brain Cancer Mission to double survival rates for people with brain cancer and improve their quality of life.

The investment will help train the next generation of molecular neuro-oncologists to find new and innovative treatments to further improve survival rates and will also support the program’s launch of INFORM 2, a novel immunotherapy trial.

Professor Tracey O’Brien, Director of Kids Cancer Centre, Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick described the Zero Childhood Cancer program as a potential game changer in how child cancer patients are treated.
 
‘Australia loses over a classroom of children each year to brain cancer. For many aggressive childhood brain cancers, little progress has been made in improving survival for decades. The Zero Childhood Cancer program is needed because childhood cancer has different causes to adult cancer and occurs in different forms to adult cancers,’ she said.
 
The funding announcement is a win for brain cancer patients like Jacob Trzenski (pictured*), who underwent treatment at Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick.

*Image supplied courtesy of the Daily Telegraph