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News & Events
'Natural killers' potential new cancer weaponThe Cancer Immunology team at The Kids is investigating how the body's 'natural killer' cells can be harnessed to fight cancer – whilst also protecting kids from nasty chemotherapy side effects.

News & Events
The Kids researchers awarded Raine Medical Research Foundation fundingCongratulations to three The Kids Research Institute Australia researchers, who have been awarded funding from the Raine Medical Research Foundation.
News & Events
New imaging equipment to boost children's cancer researchA cutting edge cancer imaging facility will help specialist children's cancer researchers at Perth's Telethon Institute for Child Health Research.
Research
Renal Masses in Childhood: An Australian PerspectiveChildhood renal masses comprise a heterogeneous group of conditions that have a wide range of presentations. This review outlines an approach to the diagnostic work-up of childhood renal masses and discusses the most common presentations and treatments. Renal tumours make up 5% of childhood cancer in Australia, with Wilms tumour being the most common under age 10 years.
Research
Ion channel modulator DPI-201-106 significantly enhances antitumor activity of DNA damage response inhibitors in glioblastomaGlioblastoma, a lethal high-grade glioma, has not seen improvements in clinical outcomes in nearly 30 years. Ion channels are increasingly associated with tumorigenesis, and there are hundreds of brain-penetrant drugs that inhibit ion channels, representing an untapped therapeutic resource. The aim of this exploratory drug study was to screen an ion channel drug library against patient-derived glioblastoma cells to identify new treatments for brain cancer.
Research
Reproducible Bioinformatics Analysis Workflows for Detecting IGH Gene Fusions in B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia PatientsB-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (B-ALL) is characterised by diverse genomic alterations, the most frequent being gene fusions detected via transcriptomic analysis (mRNA-seq). Due to its hypervariable nature, gene fusions involving the Immunoglobulin Heavy Chain (IGH) locus can be difficult to detect with standard gene fusion calling algorithms and significant computational resources and analysis times are required. We aimed to optimize a gene fusion calling workflow to achieve best-case sensitivity for IGH gene fusion detection.
Research
Long-term outcomes of symptomatic optic pathway glioma: 32-year experience at a single Western Australian tertiary pediatric oncology centerOptic pathway gliomas (OPGs) are associated with significant risk of visual and endocrine morbidity, but data on long-term outcomes in symptomatic patients is sparse. This study reviews the clinical course, disease progression, survival outcomes and long-term sequelae in pediatric patients with symptomatic OPGs in our institution over three decades.
Research
A multi-institutional retrospective pooled outcome analysis of molecularly annotated pediatric supratentorial ZFTA-fused ependymomaZFTA-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.
Research
Identification of fatty acid amide hydrolase as a metastasis suppressor in breast cancerClinical 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.
Research
The type II RAF inhibitor tovorafenib in relapsed/refractory pediatric low-grade glioma: the phase 2 FIREFLY-1 trialBRAF genomic alterations are the most common oncogenic drivers in pediatric low-grade glioma.