Victorian Paediatric Cancer Consortium

The Children’s Cancer Foundation Vision for Building Critical Mass and Collaboration in Children’s Cancer Research in Victoria

The Foundation is seeking to catalyse a new approach to childhood cancer research in Victoria. Our belief is that Victoria, with a population of over 6.6 million and birth-rate in excess of 80,000 per annum merits a holistic vision for childhood cancer research and care.

The current state of Victoria’s children’s cancer research is not optimal with the level of research being too low and the activities not always aligned. The pathways for the next generation of brilliant minds also needs support. We believe it can be better.

The Foundation’s vision for Victoria is to create an integrated and collaborative children’s cancer research consortium within Victoria that has critical mass and will act as a focus for national and international collaborations. The goal being to ensure research-informed, evidenced-based continuous improvement in care of paediatric patients and their families in Victoria.

This consortium would become a focus for education, research and clinical care and a magnet for the brightest minds in Australia and internationally.

In 2021, the Foundation obtained support from the Federal Government for this initiative. A Grant was announced by the Federal Minister for Health utilising the resources of the Medical Research Futures Fund (MRFF) Emerging Priorities and Consumer Driven Research Initiative.

This grant allocated $9.6m to a scope of work, across multiple institutions, which we hope will be the catalyst for the formation of an ongoing Victorian Paediatric Cancer Consortium (“VPCC”).

The initial program of work for the VPCC from 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2024 included the following elements

Discovery Research Programs:

• Theme 1: Next Generation Precision Oncology (Flagship Program)
• Theme 2: Tumour Microenvironment (TME) & Immunotherapy
• Theme 3: Epigenomics & Differentiation Therapy

Clinical Innovation Programs:

• Theme 1: Pharmaco- and radio-genomics (Flagship Program)
• Theme 2: Patient Survivorship
• Theme 3: Risk Stratification – Sarcoma

These areas of focus were determined based on

• areas of urgent need in paediatric cancer;
• greatest innovation and international impact;
• sustainability and potential to attract future investment;
• feasibility of clinical translation; and
• ability to leverage existing and complementary strengths at partner Institutes to achieve greatest impact.

This work was determined after actively engaged with other national research activities to avoid any duplication and ensure these bodies of work were complementary.

It is hoped that this initial scope of work and collaboration will create on going momentum and resources for paediatric research in Victoria.

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