Driving donations further through collaboration

Funds raised through The Kids’ Cancer Project matched giving appeal will go toward innovation grants to top researchers around Australia in partnership with the Federal Government.

The Priority-driven Collaborative Cancer Research Scheme (PdCCRS) is a research project funding program bringing government and other organisations together to collaboratively fund cancer research in Australia.

Through The Kids’ Cancer Project’s collaboration with the PdCCRS, corporate partners, philanthropists, fundraisers and donors can all be assured their gifts will go twice, if not three times as far to increase survival rates of children with cancer.

Learn how you can Double Your Impact

In the 2020 financial year, The Kids’ Cancer Project invested $1.65 million in eight bold scientific studies in partnership with the PdCCRS. Government and other collaborators contributed a further $2.38 million to these studies, amounting to total funding of $4.03 million to drive the greatest positive outcome for children diagnosed with the disease. Here you’ll find a brief overview of each of the studies with more details in linked articles.

8 collaboratively funded studies

Enhanced polyamine depletion as a novel therapy for aggressive childhood cancers
The Kids’ Cancer Project funding $239,995 | PdCCRS funding $347,705 | Total funding $587,700

This project will produce considerable data required for clinical trials to help kids diagnosed with high-risk neuroblastoma and the most aggressive types of brain tumours including diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, for which the survival rate is currently zero. 

Application of gene-silencing nanodrugs to inhibit medulloblastoma growth
The Kids’ Cancer Project funding $298,554 | PdCCRS funding $298,554 | Total funding $597,108

This new therapeutic strategy has the potential to increase survival and quality of life for children diagnosed with all types of brain cancer.

Intraoperative immunotherapy to prevent relapse in soft tissue sarcoma
The Kids’ Cancer Project funding $148,144 | PdCCRS funding $197,525 | Total funding $345,669

One in three children with soft tissue sarcoma die from their disease. This project will provide the necessary data to take this technology to the bedside in clinical trials to benefit patients and improve survival.

“Cage fighting" with neuroblastoma
The Kids’ Cancer Project funding $63,926 | PdCCRS funding $127,854 | Total funding $191,780

This project aims to engineer an innovative natural nanoparticle called a ‘Protein Nanocage’ to target neuroblastoma and cause tumour cell death. This nanotechnology is specifically designed to have high efficacy while minimising the harmful impacts treatment can have on healthy growing bodies.

Personalised targeted therapy for adolescent and young adult medulloblastoma patients
The Kids’ Cancer Project funding $287,332 | PdCCRS funding $287,332 | Total funding $574,664

This trial will give AYA’s diagnosed with medulloblastoma access to state-of-the-art tumour profiling and targeted therapies in order to ensure optimal treatments to improve cure rates and reduce therapy-related toxicities.

Targeting Polo-like kinase 1 as a novel therapeutic opportunity for Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Gliomas
The Kids’ Cancer Project funding $278,282 | PdCCRS funding $278,281 | Total funding $588,620

This important discovery will be used to develop the optimal combination therapy at the bench with a view to fast tracking findings to the bedside to directly benefit children with DIPG.

Targeting the NAD pathway as a new therapeutic strategy for high-risk leukaemia in children
The Kids’ Cancer Project funding $138,179 | PdCCRS funding $453,279 | Total funding $591,458

This research project aims to develop a new drug, OT-82, to be tested as a viable therapeutic strategy for aggressive leukaemia in children, to ultimately improve their survival and minimise the side effects of treatment.

Exploiting CDK4/6 inhibition to treat medulloblastoma
The Kids’ Cancer Project funding $196,207 | PdCCRS funding $392,413 | Total funding $588,620

Results from this study will determine how a new drug can be effectively incorporated into existing treatment and will provide the evidence needed to justify a new children’s brain cancer clinical trial.