Improving treatment and outcomes for children with leukaemia
Professor Murray Norris
Children’s Cancer Institute
$2,250,000
2016-2020
Background
Despite the success in treating childhood leukaemia, it still remains one of the most common causes of death from disease in children in Australia.
The research
The aim of this 5 year program is to increase survival rates of children with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL) and ultimately develop prevention strategies.
Specifically, this research focuses on developing new molecular targeted therapies for children with ALL which improve outcomes and have limited side effects.
The impact
Molecular therapies have enormous potential to significantly improve survival rates and quality of life for childhood survivors as they directly target the leukaemia cells while reducing the impact on healthy cells.