Australian children are set to gain access to the world’s most advanced cancer treatments following an announcement by The Hon Mark Butler MP, Minister for Health and Ageing, that the Australian Government is committing $5 million in grant funding over the next five years to support Australian participation in a global initiative, the LifeArc Worldwide CAR-T Pathfinder Trial and Paediatric Cell Therapy Accelerator.
The LifeArc initiative represents an exciting international collaborative effort to move potentially life-changing therapies for children with cancer into clinical trials, and ultimately the clinic, as quickly and efficiently as possible.
“We are thrilled that the government has agreed to fund this important initiative through its new Australian Cancer Research Program, ensuring that young Australians with cancer can benefit from the best the world has to offer,” commented Professor Louis Chesler, Executive Director of Children’s Cancer Institute, and Co-Director of Minderoo Children’s Comprehensive Cancer Centre, who advocated for the government funding.
“Global initiatives are critical to advancing novel and highly specialised cancer therapies, and Australia must be part of these initiatives if we are to benefit and not be left behind.”
“This new grant funding will support the priorities identified in the Childhood and Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Roadmap, particularly in terms of enabling better access to emerging technologies and therapies, which will ultimately improve outcomes for young people with cancer,” he added.
The LifeArc Worldwide CAR-T Pathfinder Trial and the Paediatric Cell Therapy Accelerator Consortium together form an integrated global platform to rapidly deliver the best available existing immunotherapies to children with cancer, as well as establish a pipeline of advanced experimental therapies for the future. Australia will now have access to this global platform, and able to participate in a suite of new international clinical trials.
The first of these, the LifeArc Pathfinder Trial, will feature CAR T-cell therapy ― in which a patient’s immune cells are engineered to recognise and destroy cancer cells in their body ― which has proven revolutionary in the treatment of certain adult cancers.
“Cell-based immunotherapies such as CAR T-cell therapy have enormous potential to safely and effectively treat children’s cancers” said Dr Richard Mitchell, Co-Director of Minderoo Children’s Comprehensive Cancer Centre.
“In the past, families have had to travel overseas and spend a fortune to access cutting-edge cancer therapies that were unavailable locally. Now, as part of the LifeArc network, we have the opportunity to conduct clinical trials of these therapies right here.”
“Australian children deserve equitable access to the latest life-saving treatments, and this is a major step towards achieving that.”
