Zero Childhood Cancer receives $600,000 to continue its fight against childhood cancer
We are honoured to continue our support of Zero Childhood Cancer — the world’s most comprehensive personalised medicine program, focussed on treating children and young people with the most aggressive cancers.
Cancer remains the biggest killer of Australian children from disease. With a $600,000 boost from The Lott, Zero can further enhance the research capabilities of their revolutionary program to give every Australian child with cancer the very best chance of survival.
The donation to Zero Childhood Cancer from The Lott, the home of Australia’s official lotteries, includes some Golden Casket unclaimed prize money.
Led by the Children’s Cancer Institute and the Kids Cancer Centre at Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick, Zero Childhood Cancer brings together all major Australian clinical and research centres working in childhood cancer.Since its national clinical trial launched in September 2017, more than 500 children and young people with high-risk cancer have been enrolled.
For over 70% of these patients, the program has successfully identified a personalised treatment plan to target the specific genetic changes driving their unique cancer, in under nine weeks.
Children’s Cancer Institute’s Executive Director Professor Michelle Haber AM said the donation would allow more seriously ill Australian children to enrol in Zero Childhood Cancer’s ground-breaking program.
“Zero Childhood Cancer is about giving children smarter, targeted therapy by identifying the unique genetic changes of each child’s cancer and using that to identify what drugs are going to be best placed to fight that cancer,” she explained.
“It’s about improving the outcome for every individual child and sparing the child of the side effects of other aggressive and unsuccessful treatments.
"It’s donations like this one today that allow us to expand this program and ensure more children have access to targeted treatment.”
The Lott Managing Director Sue van der Merwe said she was proud to continue its support of this revolutionary team on its mission.
“Last year, we were honoured to donate $600,000 to Zero Childhood Cancer to help fund its national clinical trial, and we are thrilled to continue supporting the team on their incredible mission,” she said.
“This partnership continues a long-held tradition of The Lott's official lotteries funding vital health and medical initiatives. We’re committed to giving back to the communities in which we operate, and achieving better outcomes for childhood cancer is something we are particularly passionate about.
“This program is giving new hope to families and children going through an unimaginable ordeal.
“We want more children with cancer to have the opportunity to access personalised cancer treatment plans, and with today’s $600,000 donation, along with the incredible work from the research and medical partners, that will be possible.”
We can’t wait to see the Zero Childhood Cancer Program expand even further and help more children and their families across the country.
See how Zero is changing the lives for kids like Jack in the video below.