Tracey O’Brien: The largest-ever Commonwealth investment in childhood cancer
Tracey O’Brien, NSW Chief Cancer Officer and CEO of the Cancer Institute NSW, shared a post on LinkedIn:
“”What Zero has delivered us in this country is nothing short of seismic.” These were the words of Hon. Mark Butler this morning as he announced a $112.6 million injection—the largest-ever Commonwealth investment in childhood cancer—to continue the work of the Zero Childhood Cancer Precision Medicine Program.
Led by the Children’s Cancer Institute and the Kids Cancer Centre, Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network, Zero is a partnership of hundreds of clinicians and scientists, all children’s cancer units nationally, peak bodies like ANZCHOG, and generous philanthropy. No matter where a child lives or what type or risk profile of cancer they have, access to state-of-the-art tumour profiling with matching to the best-individualized therapy is available. As a nation, we should be very proud—this is a model that is leading the way globally. As part of this investment, Zero will receive $21 million to extend coverage to young people aged 19-25 years.
Rarely do you see transformational changes in models of care happen at scale—Zero is an exemplar. Care is research, and research is care—the two are inextricably linked and together, iteratively drive better cancer outcomes. It makes me excited about what can be achieved in the next chapter of collaboration as the doors of the Minderoo Children’s Comprehensive Cancer Centre, Australia’s first truly comprehensive children’s cancer centre at the Randwick Health & Innovation Precinct, gear up to open later this year.
Also announced was a $30.8 million Commonwealth Government investment to extend the adult cancer equivalent of Zero—PrOSPeCT (Precision Oncology Screening Platform Enabling Clinical Trials), led by David Thomas and the Omico team, along with a range of national and international research and clinical partners. Together, PrOSPeCT and Zero demonstrate NSW’s strength and expertise in precision cancer medicine.
A special salute to the magnificent leadership of Professor Michelle Haber at the Children’s Cancer Institute, Dr. Richard Mitchell at the Kids Cancer Centre, Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network, and to Vanessa (Ness) Tyrrell and David Ziegler, program and clinical leads of Zero.”
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