The development of new and more effective therapies is key to improving the outcomes for children with this devastating disease.

The Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre has pioneered the use of peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) in neuroblastoma as an alternative therapy, especially in cases that have failed conventional treatment approaches.

Under the leadership of Prof Rod Hicks Molecular Imaging and Targeted Therapies Laboratory Division of Cancer Research, the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre aims to generate a more faithful model of NMYC driven neuroblastoma for therapeutic testing (by transfecting tumour cells arising from MYCN mice with a key receptor) to evaluate the efficacy of radionuclide therapy alone and in combination with other therapies.

The availability of a preclinical model that more fully resembles the features of human neuroblastoma and that can exist in the context of an intact immune system will provide an invaluable tool to develop novel combination therapies using PRRT.