Cure Cancer Announce Further Funding for Lifechanging Childhood Cancer Breakthrough
$90,000 needed to take childhood cancer breakthrough to clinical trial
New therapeutic strategy could change outlook for countless childhood neuroblastoma patients across the world
Cure Cancer commit to supporting Dr Orazio Vittorio’s project through numerous fundraising initiatives
Help support lifesaving Childhood Cancer Research
Cure Cancer funded researcher Dr Orazio Vittorio recently announced a significant breakthrough in the treatment of childhood cancer.
Neuroblastoma accounts for 15% of total childhood cancer deaths and sadly Glioblastoma has the worst survival rate of all cancers, with 0% of children surviving 5 years past their diagnosis.
Orazio and his team have discovered that by removing copper from the blood you can destroy some of the deadliest cancers that are resistant to immunotherapy.
+A WORLD CLASS BREAKTHROUGH
While immunotherapy, a treatment that works through a patient’s immune system to kill the cancers, has proven to be a breakthrough for many cancer patients, some cancers camouflage themselves from current immunotherapies.
According to Dr Vittorio, neuroblastoma and glioblastoma express PD-L1 as a way to hide from the immune system, explaining why these two cancers are so deadly. By looking at the human biopsies the researchers found a correlation between high levels of copper and increased expression of PD-L1. The researchers then showed for the first time in trials that copper levels could control the expression of PD-L1 in cancer cells.
Dr Orazio Vittorio and his team from Children’s Cancer Institute in Sydney and UNSW published the findings in the prestigious Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. It is known that cancer cells such as brain cancer ‘feed’ on copper, often having up to six times the normal levels of the metal inside the tumour cells. Dr Vittorio and colleagues studied tumour samples from more than 90 patients with neuroblastoma and 90 patients with gliomas.
Dr Vittorio’s research could also have positive implications for patients undergoing treatment for other forms of cancer. He and his team are now collaborating with scientists in the US and Italy who are running clinical trials with copper chelators on breast and prostate cancer patients.
Donate via Paypal
Total Raised so far
“This breakthrough research could not be done without the generosity of hundreds of donors. We have done this together!
We are confident that our research can enhance the efficacy of current immunotherapies to improve the quality of life of kids with cancer and give them more time to spend with their families.
”