Our "why"

Childhood cancer changes everything

For families, a diagnosis turns hope into fear and everyday life into a fight for survival. Childhood cancers are rare, but they behave differently from adult cancers. They develop rapidly, spread aggressively and often appear without warning.

Yet every child deserves the chance to live a long and healthy life. That belief drives us to provide the best possible outcomes by creating safer, more effective treatments made specifically for children.

The challenge is clear

More than 1,000 children and adolescents across Australia are diagnosed with cancer every year. Survival rates have risen to over 80%, but progress has slowed, and for certain cancers, outcomes remain devastatingly low. Traditional chemotherapy and radiotherapy - the treatments that built early progress - carry lifelong costs. More than half of survivors develop severe chronic health issues, such as hearing loss, cardiovascular complications and endocrine issues, psychological impacts, and can face secondary cancers later in life, often caused by the treatments themselves.

Children need better answers, and they need them now

While adult cancer research has accelerated through personalised medicine and immunotherapy, children have been left behind. In 70 years, the FDA has only approved 50 drugs for paediatric cancers. Whereas for adults 60 cancer drugs are approved every year.  Breakthroughs that help adults often don’t translate to young people. Paediatric clinical trials lag far behind, and the treatments available today are often decades old.

This is why we exist

The Western Australian Comprehensive Kids Cancer Centre is part of a new era of childhood cancer research, one focused on holistic, whole of life care. Our unique model brings scientists and clinicians together in a seamless loop, ensuring discoveries in the lab can become real-world treatments, and insights from the clinic – through community voices and clinical insights – continually shape and refine our research.

Our goals are simple:

• Fewer harsh treatments.
• Fewer lifelong side effects.
• More time for kids to simply be kids.
• A future where all kids with cancer survive and thrive.