Victorian lab leads world in childhood cancer research

The more than 300 cell lines in the Childhood Cancer Model Atlas will help researchers find new cancer detection tools and treatments, researcher Paul Daniel said.

"Paediatric cancers are quite unique from adult cancers so we don't necessarily expect the same drug that works in adult cancers to work in children," Dr Daniel, from the Hudson Institute, said.

"The CCMA... offers us an opportunity to identify new therapies and biomarkers of response for paediatric cancers of greatest unmet medical need."

One in five children diagnosed with cancer will not survive, while most of those who do suffer long-term disability from the toxic treatments.

Cancer remains the leading disease-related cause of death among Australian children.

Dr Claire Sun, from the Hudson Institute, said pharmaceutical companies weren't investing in childhood cancer treatments because the disease only makes up about one per cent of diagnosed cancers.

"Having models (samples) of various childhood cancers is the only way that we can study the disease and understand how it develops, what makes it grow and ultimately what treatments can be used to fight it off and hopefully cure it," she said.

Melbourne's Royal Children's Hospital welcomed the model atlas, saying it provides important insights into new targets for paediatric-focused cancer drug development. 

The Harvard Medical School in the United States also backed the new model.

"Understanding the vulnerabilities of paediatric tumours is essential to help identify new therapeutic approaches," the school's paediatrics professor Dr Mimi Bandopadhayay said.

"This work is a tour de force that includes the largest collection of brain tumour models, generating a resource that will be invaluable to researchers across the world."

The Childhood Cancer Model Atlas was developed by Dr Daniel, Dr Sun and Professor Ron Firestein in collaboration with 35 cancer research institutes across the world.