The high-risk neuroblastoma PDX paper developed by Dr Jamie Fletcher and Dr Toby Trahair of the Children's Cancer Institute is now available through the British Journal of Cancer.  You can find a link to the paper below:

• The PDX paper

This represents a major milestone in the project that we have been able to fund thanks to the support of our Neuroblastoma Australia community and fundraising events such as Run2Cure Neuroblastoma.

Thank you to your supporters for backing this work and helping make it happen. Jamie Fletcher, Project Leader

The aim of this project was to develop highly detailed models representing the diversity of neuroblastoma. Clinicians and researchers will be able to make use of this panel of PDX models to improve the accuracy with which they assess new therapeutic approaches prior to clinical trials.

This would help prioritise approaches that are more likely to be effective in children.

We are also funding a second project (optimisation of high-risk neuroblastoma model development) again, under the leadership of Dr Jamie Fletcher and Dr Toby Trahair, aimed at decreasing the time required to generate PDX models and increasing the success rate of their development.

As PDX models allow high quality lab-based testing of treatment approaches and can be an important part of testing for individual patients in the context of clinical trials, quicker and more reliable PDX development increases the number of patients that can benefit from these approaches in a clinically relevant time frame.

Improvements to PDX model development can be rapidly adopted for high-risk neuroblastoma patients enrolled on the Zero Childhood Cancer clinical trial and can influence the model development approaches of other groups in the neuroblastoma field internationally, including those involved in personalised medicine trials.

More information 

• Current research projects with the Children's Cancer Institute
• Research grant recipients
• Why fund research?