‘Without the ZERO Childhood Cancer Program, my daughter would have continued the pattern of recovery and relapse with tragic results,’ says the mother of one patient.
The federal government will invest $143.4 million to extend two world-leading precision medicine programs for children and adults with cancer, the ZERO Childhood Cancer Program and the Precision Oncology Screening Platform Enabling Clinical Trials (PrOSPeCT).
Federal health minister Mark Butler said the programs were changing the game.
“The precision medicine that these world-leading programs make possible is a real game-changer in cancer care – particularly for children and adults with rare or otherwise incurable cancers,” he said.
“This funding will improve health outcomes for people with rare and less common cancers, by increasing access to treatment options, including to otherwise restricted clinical trials that may increase quality of life and extend life expectancy.”
ZERO, which will receive $112.6 million, is a first-of-its-kind clinical trial allowing all children with cancer across the country access to precision medicine.
Run from the Kids Cancer Centre at the Sydney Children’s Hospital in Randwick, the trial identifies novel molecular genomic drug targets, allowing new treatment strategies and even diagnoses and prognoses.
The program has already supported 2000 children across the country and is expected to help an additional 300 people annually going forward.
The investment will enable the program to expand to support young people aged 19-25 with paediatric-type cancers, including those with relapsed childhood cancers.
Director of the Kids Cancer Centre Dr Richard Mitchell said the program had the potential to reduce healthcare costs while improving lives.
“ZERO’s targeted, personalised approach represents a whole new model of care that has the potential to not only improve survival but also reduce damaging side effects in kids and therefore cut down on the time they need to spend in hospital,” he said.
“Ultimately this will be less disruptive for their families and achieve better results at a lower cost to the healthcare system.”
Executive director of Children’s Cancer Institute, which does the genomic testing for the program, Professor Michelle Haber said the impacts of childhood cancer was more than people realised.
“In Australia, we have more than a thousand cases diagnosed every year, and globally, this number is estimated to be well over 400,000,” she said.
“These children endure gruelling treatment with life-long physical, emotional and psychological consequences. For them and their families, life is never the same again.
“Nowhere else in the world do children with cancer have the opportunity of benefiting from a precision program of this depth and impact.
“ZERO is showing just what’s possible when you combine cutting-edge research and technology with a multidisciplinary team approach to drive clinical care.”
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Mother of Cary, who is in remission from Ph-like acute lymphoblastic leukemia, Laura Dawson said that the program changed her daughter’s life.
“Without the ZERO Childhood Cancer Program, my daughter would have continued the pattern of ‘recovery’ and relapse with tragic results.
“She was being treated for the most common type of Leukemia, and responding well, but it turned out she had a very rare sub-type and needed a different treatment approach.
“Everyone was shocked by the genomic test result and it saved her life.”
Omico-led platform PrOSPeCT will receive the remaining $30.8 million.
The platform provides free genomic profiling to patients with poor prognosis cancers that are advanced or incurable, to identify novel treatments.
