Developing novel immunotherapies for childhood blood cancers

Dr Andrew Moore from the University of Queensland, Diamantina Institute is researching the development of novel immunotherapies for childhood blood cancers.
Dr Andrew Moore from the University of Queensland, Diamantina Institute is researching the development of novel immunotherapies for childhood blood cancers.

Recipient: Dr Andrew Moore
Institute: University of Queensland Diamantina Institute
Funding: $ 87,000 from July 2016 to June 2017

Exciting new approach holds promise of improving treatments and survival of children with blood cancers.

Improved survival rates for childhood blood cancers in recent decades have largely been due to more intensive use of conventional chemotherapy. This is unfortunately associated with a range of acute and chronic health problems.

Several blood cancers, such as acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) and Burkitt lymphoma, require radical chemotherapy and have low survival rates in the setting of relapse disease.

New treatments which utilize the patient’s immune system are desperately needed and hold promise of improving survival while reducing toxicity.

Dr Andrew Moore along with Dr Stephen Mattarollo and Associate Professor Kristen Radford at The University of Queensland and Translational Research Institute (TRI) are developing novel approaches using genetically-engineered mice that will mirror the biological response of humans to blood cancer immunotherapy.