This year alone more than 600 Australian children will be
diagnosed with cancer. Whilst survival rates for some childhood
leukaemias have improved dramatically, from 20 per cent in the
1970's to 80 per cent today, the same number of children are still
getting cancer.
The Murdoch Childrens is heading up the world's largest study into
the case of leukaemia, the most common cause of preventable
childhood cancer.
Led by our Director, Professor Terry Dwyer AO AM MPH, Murdoch
Childrens will lead a global team of scientists to track one
million pregnant mothers and their babies.
The project spans four continents with research teams from 15
countries including England, China, Japan, United Sates of America,
Norway & Denmark.
This project will use the same methods used by Professor Dwyer's
team which lead to the discovery in the early 1990's that sleeping
babies on their stomachs is the biggest risk factor for Sudden
Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). This discovery and the subsequent
public health campaign lead to an 80 per cent decrease in SIDS
related deaths in many developed countries.
By taking hundreds of measurements on the mothers and babies
taking part in this cancer study we hope to be able to identify
environmental and genetic factors that differ between children who
get cancer and those who don't. Having data collected from mothers
and babies across the globe allows us to examine how potentially
important causes of childhood cancer differ across countries.
If successful we hope that we will be able to produce a set of
recommendations that can be implemented to reduce the risk of
children developing childhood cancer.