Children with cancer deserve treatments made for them.
Every year, around 1,270 children and teenagers in Australia are expected to be diagnosed with cancer.
Behind every number is a child whose life changes in an instant. A family learning a new language of scans, treatments and uncertainty. And a team of clinicians and researchers trying to give that child the best possible chance.
Research has transformed outcomes for many childhood cancers. But the work is far from finished.
Some cancers remain incredibly difficult to treat. Many children still receive treatments developed decades ago, often from therapies originally designed for adults. And for those who survive, treatment itself can leave effects that last long after the cancer is gone.
That is why childhood cancer research still matters.
Childhood cancer is not simply adult cancer in a smaller body
Children develop different cancers to adults. Their cancers can behave differently, respond differently to treatment and affect bodies and brains that are still growing and developing.
There are more than 12 major types of childhood cancer and over 100 subtypes, each presenting its own challenges for researchers and clinicians.
Yet childhood cancers are rare compared with adult cancers. That means smaller patient populations, fewer opportunities for large clinical trials and less commercial incentive to develop treatments specifically for children.
Research focused on childhood cancer is essential.
Treatments have changed lives. They can also change lives forever.
Survival is only one measure of success.
For many children diagnosed with cancer today, the outlook is vastly different from generations before them. Research has helped improve diagnosis, treatment and survival for many childhood cancers. But surviving cancer does not always mean leaving it behind.
Chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery and other treatments can affect a child’s developing body. Some survivors experience long-term or late effects involving their physical health, learning, fertility, mental health, relationships, education, employment and everyday life.
We need research that doesn’t only ask:
“How do we help more children survive?”
It must also ask:
“How do we help them survive with the best possible future?”
The numbers tell us why we can’t stop
1,270 Australian children and teenagers expected to be diagnosed with cancer in 2025.
144 Children and adolescents aged 0–19 expected to lose their lives to cancer in Australia in 2025.
400,000 Children and adolescents aged 0–19 develop cancer worldwide each year.
100+ Subtypes of childhood cancer researchers are working to better understand.
And treatment innovation has not kept pace.
In 70 years, only around 50 cancer drugs have been approved by the US FDA specifically for paediatric cancers. By comparison, around 60 cancer drugs are approved for adult cancers each year. Many standard treatments used for childhood cancers were approved more than 30 years ago, with some dating back even further.
Children deserve better options. Research is how we find them.
Research gives us better questions. And better answers.
Childhood cancer research can help us understand what causes cancer cells to grow and survive, identify new targets for treatment, develop therapies that are more precise and less damaging, understand why some cancers return or resist treatment, and reduce the long-term effects children can carry into adulthood.
Progress rarely comes from one discovery in isolation.
It is built over years through laboratory research, collaboration, clinical translation, data, tissue samples, technology and researchers continually asking the next question.
And that work needs sustained funding.
Why sustained funding matters
Research doesn’t happen on a predictable timetable. A promising discovery today may build on work begun years or even decades earlier. Researchers need people willing to back the questions whose answers aren’t known yet.
Since 1980, Child Cancer Research Foundation has invested more than $45 million in childhood cancer research, predominantly in Western Australia. That long-term support has helped researchers build knowledge, capability and momentum across generations.
We don’t make the discoveries. Researchers do. Our role is to help give them the opportunity to keep searching.
Explore the research we support →
Research has already changed what is possible
“The Cancer Centre certainly wouldn’t be where we are today, without the remarkable 30+ years of support provided by the CCRF since our inception.”
– Associate Professor Joost Lesterhuis
Then Head, Telethon Kids Cancer Centre
And there is still more to discover.
For every child whose treatment works, there is another family hoping for the same outcome.
For every cancer where survival has improved, there are others where progress has been painfully slow.
For every young survivor reaching adulthood, there are questions about how we can reduce the lifelong impact of the treatment that saved them.
Research gave many children possibilities that previous generations didn’t have. The next generation deserves even more.