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Exploring new possibilities for children with cancer 

2 min read 23 September 2025

This September, we recognise Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. The impact of childhood cancer on children and their families is immense and devastating. That is why Peter Mac researcher Associate Professor Paul Ekert is working hard to expand and improve treatment options for children with cancer.

Paul Ekert Headshot

Childhood cancers are biologically very different to adult cancers and require different treatment approaches. Unfortunately, they are currently not well understood and relatively under-investigated. New treatments are urgently needed, especially for children with ‘high-risk’ cancers where there is a 30% or less chance they will survive for five years. While immunotherapies and targeted therapies have been making inroads with adult cancers, this has not yet been the case for most childhood cancers. 

A/Prof Ekert is a leader in a federally funded national network between the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and the Children’s Cancer Institute Sydney, which includes the ZERO Childhood Cancer (ZCC) Program. This initiative aims to determine if analysing the genome (the full set of genes) of a child’s cancer can help to personalise and improve their cancer treatment. Initially focusing on Australian children with high-risk cancers, the program is now available to all Australian children with a cancer diagnosis.  
  
Working in collaboration with this network, A/Prof Ekert is pursuing multiple key projects to help children with cancer. These include:

  • Unearthing the unique immunological features of childhood cancers, which can then be harnessed to develop effective immunotherapies for children. 
  • Investigating how gene-editing technology can be used to target and destroy the RNAs (the message that comes from a gene) involved in cancer development and growth. 
  • A project focusing on the rare and unusual features discovered in cancer genes. By studying the genetic changes that cause childhood cancer, A/Prof Ekert and the ZCC Program can determine how they function and find drugs that specifically target the cancer genes.

By providing valuable new insights into the features of childhood cancer, this work addresses important gaps that improves the likelihood of survival for these children, allowing them to live longer and healthy lives.

Thank you to all Peter Mac Foundation supporters, whose generosity helps to transform the lives of all people affected by cancer, including children and their families.

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We are delighted to share with you the new Peter Mac Foundation’s strategy!  Every day, people affected by cancer face some of the toughest moments of their lives. Support from our incredible community helps make world-leading research, innovative treatments and compassionate care possible.  Our new strategy sets forward how your generosity will continue to make a real difference for patients and families, today and into the future. By working closely with Peter Mac, we’re ensuring your support drives the breakthroughs that matter most.  Together, we’re helping shape the future of cancer care and research – and creating hope where it’s needed most. Thank you for being part of this journey.  To read our new strategy, head to the link in bio.
This World Cancer Day 2026, we are United by Unique. We often hear from our incredible community of Peter Mac supporters about their personal journeys with cancer. And every story we hear reminds us that no two cancer journeys are the same. These stories show us why research into personalised cancer care is so vital. Cancer doesn’t affect people in one way, and the best treatment recognises and responds to each person’s uniqueness. That’s why Peter Mac’s researchers are developing therapies shaped by each person’s needs, keeping people at the heart of all we do. Today, we recognise all Peter Mac supporters and the many different experiences and motivations that unite them. Thank you for helping advance cancer treatment and care shaped around each individual.
What if we could see exactly how cancer behaves once it reaches the bone? New research can help us map what happens next and develop better treatments for advanced cancer. When cancer spreads to the bone, it can cause serious complications and become incurable. This is particularly common in hormone-driven cancers like breast and prostate cancer. Interestingly, although many cancer cells can enter the bone, only a small number will aggressively spread. This process, often taking months or years, suggests the bone marrow environment plays a key role in keeping cancer cells dormant or triggering ‘bone metastases’. But bone tissue is extremely difficult to study, making it hard for researchers to understand how this spread occurs. Because of this, there are currently no effective treatments for bone metastases. Dr Joan So was recently awarded a Peter Mac Foundation grant to help overcome this challenge. With grant funding, Dr So will use samples from breast cancer patients who have suffered bone metastases to study how cancer cells interact with the surrounding cell types in the bone marrow. Using cutting edge technology to see which genes are active in individual cells and how these cells behave in bone tissue, Dr So will generate a detailed “Google Map” of breast cancer that’s moved to the bone. This will help to identify which cells and molecular pathways influence the switch between dormant and growing cancer. The potential insights from Dr So’s work may open a new world of research opportunities and reveal new approaches for treating cancer that has spread to the bone. Thank you for supporting work that provides hope to people facing advanced cancer.
As another year draws to a close, the Peter MacCallum Cancer Foundation thanks our amazing supporters for your outstanding generosity this year. In 2025, your support has allowed lifesaving cancer research at Peter Mac to grow and thrive. Whether it was donating, leaving a gift in will, volunteering, running a marathon, rallying the community or sharing your story – you have all played a vital role in shaping a brighter for people affected by cancer. On behalf of Peter Mac researchers, clinicians and all people affected by cancer: thank you sincerely for your amazing support in 2025. Wishing you all a happy and healthy 2026.
“Big thanks to everyone who’s donated to Peter Mac research this Christmas. Your support means we can make greater discoveries to help cancer patients all over the world.” – A message from Associate Professor Ben Tran, Medical Oncologist at Peter Mac. Read more about Ben's work here: foundation.petermac.org/ben_christmas
Finding a ‘peek behind the curtain’ for CAR T-cell therapies may be the answer to new ways of treating solid cancer tumours. CAR T-cell therapy has been a game-changer in treating blood cancers. Patient immune cells are modified to recognise cancer cells and attack them. Unfortunately, it has not been as successful in treating solid tumours. One potential reason is that not enough of the immune cells travel to the tumour to be effective. There is currently no method for locating and tracking these cells in real-time, making it hard to understand why CAR T-cell therapy is largely ineffective at treating solid tumours. With the support of a Peter Mac Foundation Grant, Dr Rebecca Abbott is exploring if a molecule called a ‘tracer’ can be used to watch CAR T-cell therapy in action. This could potentially be a powerful tool in providing insights on why CAR T-cell therapy often doesn’t work in solid tumours, and how we can design CAR T-cells which are more effective. Dr Abbott’s research can help to change the course for CAR T-cell therapy and expand treatment options across more cancer types. Thank you for supporting groundbreaking research that helps people with all cancers.
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