Young Scientist receives a Sporting Chance
Childhood cancer scientist, Tammy Law, has been awarded the Ken Callander Fellowship from the Sporting Chance Cancer Foundation which will provide $225,000 over three years to support her research into Leukaemia.
The inaugural Ken Callander Fellowship has been awarded to Ms Law to do further research into Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL), the most common childhood cancer with the aim to improve the chances of survival for children who relapse.
One in four children with ALL relapse as a result of Minimal Residual Disease (MRD), where a small number of treatment-resistant cancer cells persist during treatment.
"The work we are doing focuses on measuring the MRD of children who have relapsed ALL. The results from this trial will be used to determine whether measuring MRD at specific timepoints is able to identify children who will benefit from a bone marrow transplant or whether additional chemotherapy is required prior to a bone marrow transplant so as to reduce the chance of another relapse.
I really appreciate the opportunity Sporting Chance Cancer Foundation has given me to continue our research which will provide important information on how we can hopefully further improve treatment outcomes for children who have relapsed ALL and I would like to thank Sporting Chance Cancer Foundation for the funding they have provided to us," says Ms Law.
The Ken Callander Scholarship is granted to a young scientist undertaking a unique piece of research that will improve the outcome of children with cancer.
"I am very proud to have my name associated with the research to be carried out by Tammy. I thank the Sporting Chance Cancer Foundation, of which I am a patron, and I wish Tammy all the best in her endeavours to try and win the fight against Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia and thus save the lives of many young children," says Ken Callander.
Sporting Chance funds vital prostate cancer research
The Sporting Chance Cancer Foundation (through the Raelene Boyle scholarship scheme) is currently funding Benjamin Namdarian’s research into the evaluation of screening strategies for prostrate cancer detection and treatment. Dr Namdarian says he is at an exciting point with the research as his newly gained perspective and knowledge have positioned him well to make significant progress.
Sporting Chance Cancer Foundation Celebrity Golf Day
Tuesday 18 September 2007
The annual Sporting Chance Cancer Foundation Celebrity Golf Day is an opportunity for individuals and businesses to make a contribution to Sporting Chance projects whilst also playing a round of golf with some of Australia's most prominent sporting professionals.
The Golf Day is held at the Terrey Hills Golf and Country Club - all guests will are picked up and returned to Sydney by limousine.
All funds raised through entry fees, on course activities and auctions go directly towards the Mark Taylor Homecare Programmes and numerous Sporting Chance Scholarships across Australia.
If you or your business is interested in joining us for this years Golf Day please contact:
Jenny Nairne on 02 9240 9880 or 0418 408 531.
Update on Reg Gasnier Fellowship
The Gene Therapy Project funded by the Reg Gasnier Fellowship has progressed in two areas in the past 12 months. The first area involves the development of a bone marrow transplant model using the MGMT Transgenic mouse as a stem cell donor while the second area involves a clinical trail in children being treated for brain tumours.
Development of a model for MGMT in vivo selection in allogeneic stem cell transplantation
The project has demonstrated that the MGMT transgenic mouse is a good donor for bone marrow transplantation between mice of two different strains.
The project has also achieved its aim of being able to successfully carry out transplants using a conditioning protocol (to allow for successful transplantation) that is not toxic to the recipient mice. The strains of mice being used are similar to each other in the way that a brother and sister are matched when these types of transplants are done in children. The project is also utilising chemotherapy at low doses to increase the amount of donor bone marrow that is engrafted with the recipients.
Although further work in optimising this model needs to be done, the projects findings should be submitted for publication within the next few months to follow-up on data which has been published as a result of presentations made at the European Gene Therapy Society Annual Meeting in Finland in November last year, and the Australasian Gene Therapy Meeting in Melbourne in April this year.
Clinical trail for minimising the side effects of chemotherapy in children being treated for brain tumours
The second project area is progressing towards a clinical trial using MGMT gene transfer to protect bone marrow from the side effects of chemotherapy in children being treated for brain tumours.
The project has been able to establish a collaboration in this area with a group from the Fred Hutchison Cancer Institute in Seattle - the world's leading bone marrow transplantation centre. This collaboration will allow the project team access to pre-clinical data, generated by our collaborators, which demonstrates that the MGMT gene transfer strategy can successfully protect the bone marrow from chemotherapy in a large animal e.g. dog.
Access to this data, combined with this collaboration will provide us with a strong base on which to seek approval from Australian regulators to approve the trial.
The Children's Hospital at Westmead - Cancer Gene Therapy Unit
In the past 12 months the Oncology Research Unit at the Children's Hospital at Westmead has made important progress on a Cancer Gene Therapy Project funded by the Sporting Chance Cancer Foundation.
Through the project, the Oncology Research Unit have successfully developed ways to minimise the side effects of chemotherapy and maintain normal blood counts while administering repeated cycles of chemotherapy.
Raelene Boyle Home Care Program Update
The Raelene Boyle Home Care Program is one of the major flagship services the Mater Children's Hospital in conjunction with the Sporting Chance Foundation is providing to the South East Queensland community.
Emma Brownrigg and Christine Mayne have been coordinating the Raelene Boyle Kids Home Care Program for the Paediatric Oncology / Haematology Unit at the Mater Children's Hospital since February 2003.
Since February, Emma and Christine have travelled more than 18,000km and visited a combined total of 490 patients. The reasons for these visits have been predominantly for medication administration, palliative care and bereavement follow up, education and support and blood tests.
Both Emma and Christine say the benefits for the families and the children being able to utilise the Raelene Boyle Home Care Program are enormous.
The verbal feedback they receive from the families is always positive and parents are thankful that the Program continues to exist.
According to Emma and Christine, the main reasons why parents find the Raelene Boyle Home Care Program valuable are because:
- They don't have to get the children dressed to go out to the hospital
- They do not have to drive in the traffic
- They do not have to wait to be seen as they would in hospital
- They do not have to get child minders for the other children
- They get time away from the hospital
During the year, Emma and Christine have also introduced an occupational therapist and music therapist to the Program. These therapists visit parents and their siblings for diversion therapy. Emma says this has been a huge success with the all the children involved.
A further part of the program has been providing families with ongoing support after they have lost a child. Emma and Christine regularly contact parents by phone and visiting their home. The feedback they have received on this service has been extremely positive.
Using Sporting Chance Foundation funding, Emma was also able to attend a "Hospital In The Home Conference" at the beginning of the year.
Emma says the conference was an important event to attend, as it enabled her to meet colleagues from all over Australia and New Zealand and discuss similar programs and ask for advice about the Raelene Boyle Home Care Program.
Jaymee Zeller Toronto Campaign
The Sporting Chance Cancer Foundation was recently contacted by the Mater Children's Hospital in Brisbane to raise urgent funds for 5-year-old Jaymee Zeller.
Jaymee had lost an eye to a cancerous tumour at 10 months old and had been diagnosed with another cancer in her remaining eye.
The new cancer's growth had progressed so rapidly that the equipment Jaymee's family had raised funds to treat her original tumour with was no longer sufficient.
Doctors at the Mater Children's Hospital recommended that Jaymee's best chance of beating the cancer and keeping her eye-sight was to seek treatment at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada.
This hospital had developed advanced treatment for this type of cancer and was able to provide access to sophisticated equipment that allows doctors to watch the progress of a tumour and administer specialist chemotherapy.
As there are massive life threatening complexities with this type of treatment, Jaymee and her mother were going to have to reside in Toronto for more than five months.
The estimated costs for basic living expenses in Toronto and flights were $40,000.
The Sporting Chance Foundation responded immediately by agreeing to match any donation that the public raised for Jaymee.
After a series of media appearances by Sporting Chance Cancer Foundation Board Member, Jack Hughes, $40,000 was raised for Jaymee in less than a day.
Jaymee is now in Toronto with her mother and is reported to be responding well to the advanced treatment.