Page 12 - Retail Pharmacy Assistants September 2020

10 WHAT’S TRENDING
RESEARCH INVESTMENT SOUGHT FOR KIDS’ CANCER
An independent national charity that supports childhood cancer research, The Kids’ Cancer Project (TKCP), is aiming to attract significant pledges from the business community to fund life- saving scientific research for childhood cancer.
With the charity hoping to raise $1.7 million by 31 October, investment with TKCP will go towards innovation grants to top researchers around Australia in partnership with the federal government through Cancer Australia’s Priority-driven Collaborative Cancer Research Scheme (PdCCRS).
Across financial years 2018 and 2019, TKCP committed $1.65 million in eight bold scientific studies in partnership with the PdCCRS (towards a total funding of $4.03 million).
Through TKCP’s collaboration with the PdCCRS, corporate investors can be assured their pledge will at minimum be doubled, but could be quadrupled, to increase survival rates of children with cancer.
“Right now, the gold standard therapy for kids with brain cancer (the most common childhood cancer) is not acceptable,” University of Queensland Professor Brandon Wainwright said.
He is working on a study that will determine how a new drug can be effectively incorporated into existing treatment. The research will also provide the evidence needed to justify a new children’s brain cancer clinical trial.
The studies being funded are often at a critical stage of ensuring the research makes it to clinical trial.
Dr W Joost Lesterhuis, a member of the Telethon Kids Institute team, is working on a study titled ‘Intraoperative immunotherapy to prevent relapse in soft tissue sarcoma’.
Currently one in three children with soft tissue sarcoma die from their disease. Funding for the project “will provide
the necessary data to take this technology to the bedside in clinical trials to benefit patients and improve survival”, Dr Lesterhuis says.
Other projects that require funding include those for bringing to children existing clinical trials for adults, as cancer research doesn’t always trickle down to childhood cancer.
OT-82 (a newly developed drug for blood cancer) is now in clinical trial, which according to UNSW’s Dr Michelle Henderson, Senior Scientist at Children’s Cancer Institute is very exciting, but it’s not yet in a clinical trial for kids.
She welcomed a grant from TKCP as being timely, “because the next step is for us to plan a trial in children”.
With 950 children and adolescents in Australia diagnosed with cancer each year and three dying each week, funding scientific projects is promoted as the fastest way to achieve a cure.
TKCP CEO Owen Finegan has seen firsthand how far the donated dollar can go with childhood cancer research.
“Companies looking for smart and meaningful returns on their corporate social responsibility dollar can multiply their impact up to four times through our collaboration with the federal government and current studies we’ve committed to funding,” he said.
“Scientific solutions are the only way to cure childhood cancer. Our funding is helping researchers move quickly and decisively to pursue new ideas to make a real difference sooner. Our focus is on science that will allow 100 per cent survival and the ongoing quality of life of those survivors.”
Some returns have a much bigger impact than just the bottom line. To make a significant and positive impact on the lives of children diagnosed with cancer, compassionate businesses are urged to contact The Kids’ Cancer Project or discover more at thekidscancerproject.org.au/multiply.
RETAIL PHARMACY ASSISTANTS • AUG 2020