Cancer

Cancer can occur when some of the body’s cells grow and multiply uncontrollably. Cancer can develop almost anywhere in the body.

As cancerous cells grow and multiply, they damage or invade surrounding tissue (groups of cells.) They often spread to other parts of the body, causing further damage.

Sometimes cancerous cells form a solid mass called a tumour. A cancerous (malignant) tumour can grow and spread to other parts of the body, unlike a non-cancerous (benign) tumour which does not spread. Children with cancer of the brain, stomach or kidneys will have a tumour.

Other types of cancer do not form a tumour including leukaemia (cancer of the blood) and lymphoma (cancer of the lymphatic system.) The lymphatic system helps the body fight infection.

Survival rates from childhood cancers have improved but we need more research to understand how best to treat, cure and prevent them.

Who does it affect?

Almost half of all children with cancer in Australia were aged four or under, when diagnosed.
Leukaemias are the most common type of cancer diagnosed in Australian children, accounting for about one in three cases, followed by tumours of the central nervous system (mainly brain tumours) which account for one in every four cases.
About 750 Australian children aged under 15 are diagnosed with cancer a year and 100 children die — mainly due to brain tumours.
The number of childhood cancer cases increased by 67 per cent in Australia between 1983 and 2015.

Our childhood cancer research

A new initiative we are co-leading, the Victorian Paediatric Cancer Consortium, aims to find new therapies for brain, bone and soft tissue cancers which have low survival rates, reduce severe long-term treatment side-effects and hasten translation of discoveries to hospitals.

We have a key role in the world’s largest childhood cancer study of preventable causes, the International Childhood Cancer Cohort Consortium (I4C).

A personalised medicine initiative will enable treatment of difficult cancers, maximise chances of cure and reduce treatment harms. Every child who relapses or has poor-outcome cancer will have therapy tailored to their tumor’s genetic makeup.

The biggest cause of long-term disease and death in child cancer survivors is heart problems caused by cancer therapy. Our national trial, world first cardio-oncology registry, and cardio-oncology hubs will identify children at risk using mini hearts grown in the laboratory and use heart-protective medications to prevent damage.

Brain cancer is the deadliest cancer in children. Our studies aim to identify new therapies, that use the immune system to fight cancer, assess if drugs before surgery in relapsed patients help medication reach tumours better and if a new treatment can shrink brain tumours in neurofibromatosis patients.

We hope better diagnosis and tailored therapy will come from our research on genomic sequencing.

Impacts of our research

An alliance of 76 organisations led by MCRI will enable Australia to become global leaders in genomic medicine which studies a person’s genes to improve diagnosis and provide individualised t Cancer is a focus.
The Brain Cancer Centre will forge new frontiers in research against brain cancer which kills more Australian children than any other disease, aiming to improve treatment and outcomes.
Our tumour biobank provides tissue from surgery, blood and bone marrow of patients and relatives so national and international researchers can study cell activity that causes cancer, establish new tests to diagnose and select treatments, test new drugs and identify new targets for therapy.
We grew human immune cells in a world first aiming for future use of patient skin cells to grow new cells for therapy.
We found altering gut bacteria may protect against stomach cancer, and developed a home treatment program for some cancer patients and a blood test to assess bone marrow transplant through our Public Cord Blood Bank we have enabled more than 500 cord blood transplants.

We are paving the way for cardio-oncology clinics nationwide to prevent, detect, monitor and treat patients with, or at risk of heart disease from cancer therapy.

Our vision

No child should have to suffer cancer. Our vision is that one day no lives will be lost to cancer. We are working to eliminate childhood cancer, to better detect, prevent and cure disease, improve survival and reduce symptoms and side effects from treatment.