Australian research offers new treatment hope for deadly childhood cancers

Sydney, Feb 12 (IANS/GURPUNEET SIDHU) Australian researchers have developed a new treatment for deadly childhood cancer using engineered immune cells.

The research, published on Wednesday, was led by a team from the University of Queensland (UQ) that developed a new therapeutic strategy for paediatric sarcomas, Xinhua news agency reported.

Sarcomas are cancers that develop in the bones and soft tissues, including muscles, fat, and blood vessels. In children, the tumours tend to grow aggressively and spread throughout the body, making treatment difficult.

According to the new study, sarcomas account for 5-10 per cent of all childhood cancers but are responsible for more deaths than brain cancer, skin cancer, leukaemia, and lymphoma.

The new treatment uses engineered immune cells — also known as “killer cells” that have been modified to recognise and respond to disease — to target and destroy sarcoma tumours.

Wayne Nicholls, a co-author of the study from UQ’s Ian Frazer Centre for Children’s Immunotherapy Research, said that sarcoma is the biggest killer of people aged 10-30 and that there has been no improvement in survival rates for 40 years.

“At the moment, there are really no novel therapies available for paediatric solid tumours. This is a significant step forward towards a novel therapy that could be used for patients,” he said.

Fernando Guimaraes, Associate Professor at UQ’s Frazer Institute said that the breakthrough has the potential to be lifesaving for many patients.

“These cancers have a very limited number of interventions. We really haven’t had any new treatments in the past four decades,’’ Guimaraes said.

The treatment could also have an impact on other hard-to-cure diseases such as triple-negative breast cancer, said the team. The research is published in Clinical and Translational Medicine.

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