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News & Events

Replication of rare aggressive brain cancer could pave the way for better treatments

In an Australian-first, The Kids Research Institute Australia researchers have developed a new tool that could improve outcomes for children with a highly aggressive type of brain cancer.

News & Events

'Natural killers' potential new cancer weapon

The 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

Experts Pledge Global Assault on Kids’ Cancer

A global plan to tackle one of the most aggressive types of childhood brain tumours will be developed as a result of a meeting of international experts in WA.

Research

The relationship between medication literacy and skin adverse reactions in non-small-cell lung cancer patients undergoing targeted EGFR-The Kidstherapy

High medication literacy is the basis of rational medication application and is essential for the management of severe adverse drug reactions. The objective of the present study was to assess the level of medication literacy and determine the association between medication literacy and skin adverse drug reactions in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients undergoing targeted epidermal growth factor receptor tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-The Kids) therapy.

Research

Silencing of TESTIN by dense biallelic promoter methylation

Aberrant promoter DNA methylation has been reported in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukaemia and has the potential to contribute to its onset and outcome

Research

Reproducible Bioinformatics Analysis Workflows for Detecting IGH Gene Fusions in B-Cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia Patients

B-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

Pre-Clinical Evaluation of the Hypomethylating Agent Decitabine for the Treatment of T-Cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma

T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma (T-LBL) is a rare and aggressive lymphatic cancer, often diagnosed at a young age. Patients are treated with intensive chemotherapy, potentially followed by a hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Although prognosis of T-LBL has improved with intensified treatment protocols, they are associated with side effects and 10-20% of patients still die from relapsed or refractory disease. Given this, the search toward less toxic anti-lymphoma therapies is ongoing.

Research

Acute Leukaemia of Ambiguous Lineage Presenting as a Focal Bone Lesion: a Case Report

Acute leukaemia is the most common childhood malignancy. Almost all cases are classified as acute lymphoblastic leukaemia or acute myeloid leukaemia. Acute leukaemia of ambiguous lineage (ALAL) is a rare form of acute leukaemia that cannot be classified by a single lineage. Like other acute leukaemias, ALAL typically presents with nonspecific symptoms such as fatigue, fever, or bleeding.

Research

Defining the fetal origin of MLL-AF4 infant leukemia highlights specific fatty acid requirements

Infant MLL-AF4-driven acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a devastating disease with dismal prognosis. A lack of understanding of the unique biology of this disease, particularly its prenatal origin, has hindered improvement of survival. We perform multiple RNA sequencing experiments on fetal, neonatal, and adult hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells from human and mouse.

Research

Clinical Implications of Minimal Residual Disease Detection in Infants With KMT2A-Rearranged Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Treated on the Interfant-06 Protocol

Infant acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is characterized by a high incidence of KMT2A gene rearrangements and poor outcome. We evaluated the value of minimal residual disease (MRD) in infants with KMT2A-rearranged ALL treated within the Interfant-06 protocol, which compared lymphoid-style consolidation (protocol IB) versus myeloid-style consolidation (araC, daunorubicin, etoposide/mitoxantrone, araC, etoposide).