I am delighted to support your new effort to raise funds for the Children’s Cancer Research Trust to support ongoing research into the causes and treatment of childhood cancer.
My research group was enormously grateful for the amazing fund raising work you did over 10 years ago with Kids Calendar for Cancer Research. Over three years the calendar raised over $200k which was used to support several research projects in the children’s cancer research group, University of Otago, Christchurch.
To ensure we could continue to support research, we established the Children’s Cancer Research Trust in 2007. The Trust has since supported several laboratory and clinical research projects, including nursing led research and education.
One of the most important projects funded by the Trust over the last 5 years was an International Clinical Trial (SIOPEL 6) to test new a new drug to prevent chemotherapy related hearing loss in children. A very important cancer chemotherapy drug, cisplatin, is very effective in treating several different childhood cancers but causes hearing loss as a major side effect. The SIOPEL 6 clinical trial has tested a new drug (sodium thiosulfate) that works as an antidote to cisplatin. The trial was completed last year and final results are awaited. If the drug is proven to prevent hearing loss, it will have a major benefit to all children receiving treatment with cisplatin.
Your new fund raising will continue to support a number of ongoing research projects sponsored by the Trust.
Associate Professor Michael Sullivan
MB ChB DCH FRACP PhD
Head of Solid Tumour and Neuro-Oncology
Royal Children’s Hospital
Melbourne