Children's Cancers

Despite remarkable medical advances over the past four decades, cancer is still the leading cause of death by disease in young people. Australian figures estimate that around 600 children a year will be newly diagnosed with cancer.

On average, 82 per cent of these children will survive – but others will lose the battle.

Cancer even takes a toll on those who are cured. During early life, the treatment required can have long-lasting impacts on quality of life, with survivors and their families facing physical, psychological and developmental challenges.

Cancer is a highly complex multi-system disease, caused when cells within the body mutate and evolve strategies to evade their own death, resulting in uncontrolled rapid growth, invading into normal surrounding tissues and spreading to other parts of the body. Cancer cells compete with normal healthy cells, absorbing nutrients and oxygen.

Each cancer is unique. Even children with the same type of cancer have different genetic features capable of triggering different responses to therapies. In addition, unfortunately cancer cells can also become resistant to treatments that initially looked promising.

Leukaemia and brain tumours are the most common cancers in children, making up half of all diagnoses.

In the past 30 years, survival for children with leukaemia has improved from 30 per cent to more than 80 per cent. This is testament to the difference research can make, as well as the participation in global clinical trials that directly link cancer biology with clinical therapeutic strategies.

Focused research is also gradually leading to improved therapies for brain tumour patients. For example, research has revealed that medulloblastoma, the most common brain cancer of childhood, is not a single disease entity, but instead consists of at least four distinct molecular subgroups, which importantly respond differently to the current treatments of surgery, radiation therapy and chemotherapy.

Over the past two decades, cure rates for childhood brain cancer have stagnated at a level well below that of other paediatric cancers. This lack of progress is highlighted by the fact that in Australia brain cancer now kills more children than any other disease; of the 100 children who die from cancer in Australia each year, one in four had brain cancer

Defeating childhood cancer requires specialist teams of both researchers and oncologists. To allow this, the Telethon Kids Cancer Centre has been established.