The Project, which was announced today at the Lions Australia 2016 National Convention in Echuca, Victoria, is supported by the Lions Club International Foundation (LCIF) and by the Australian Lions Childhood Cancer Research Foundation (ALCCRF). Together, the two organisations are contributing AU$3.2 million – one of the largest single philanthropic gifts for children’s cancer in Australia – with a commitment from ALCCRF to raise an additional AU$0.8 million over the next three years.
The Lions Kids Cancer Genome Project is a collaborative partnership, bringing together Australia’s national personalised medicine program in childhood cancer – the Zero Childhood Cancer Program, led by Children’s Cancer Institute and the Kids Cancer Centre, Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick – and state-of-the-art capability in whole genome sequencing and analysis at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research.
In its first three years, the Project will provide whole genome sequencing and analysis for 400 children with high-risk cancer in Australia who will be enrolled in the Zero Childhood Cancer Program – one of the most detailed genetic and biological analyses of a child’s cancer globally to date. Whole genome sequencing will take place following diagnosis or relapse of cancers with the poorest prognoses, such as brain tumours.
Whole genome sequencing looks at the entire genome and its 20,000+ genes in order to define the genetic changes associated with a given cancer. This makes it possible to develop personalised cancer treatment by integrating this genetic information with other biological and clinical data.
In addition, the study will identify genetic changes in each child’s DNA that might predispose to cancer, helping to build up a database of genetic risk factors that could assist with prevention and treatment strategies in the future. Genome sequencing and analysis for the Project will be carried out at Garvan’s Kinghorn Centre for Clinical Genomics (KCCG), which is the largest genome sequencing facility in the southern hemisphere.
…continue reading at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research website.
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Managing Patient Risk in Paediatric, and Adolescent & Young Adult cancer cohorts.
At August 2017:
The Australian Genomics ‘Managing patient risk – Paediatric and Adolescent & Young Adult (AYA)’ flagship project, leverages funding support from NSW Health (AYA), and the Lions Club International Foundation (Paediatric).
This funding has enabled the flagship project to study individuals with early-onset cancer from an existing cancer cohort aged under 16 years at diagnosis (paediatric), and a cohort aged over 16 years at diagnosis (AYA), using whole genome sequencing and targeted analysis.
The flagship aims to compare the genetic implications of patients recruited based on age-of-onset with family history, and to identify the spectrum of clinically actionable variants across a broad range of cancers, based on age-of-onset. Researchers are linking genomic, pathology, clinical and pedigree data generated from the patients to create a ‘knowledge bank’ that will help inform variant classification for the clinical genomics community. Participants with clinically ‘actionable’ germline variants will be offered participation in a program to manage their genetic risk through genetic services.
The flagship is led by Prof David Thomas (Director, The Kinghorn Cancer Centre, the Garvan Institute of Medical Research) and collaborates across the Garvan Institute, Sydney Children’s Hospital, the Children’s Medical Research Institute, the Children’s Cancer Institute, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, and QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute.
