A nurse and adolescent patient walking together.

A clinical nurse walking and smiling with an adolescent boy, both smiling.

Survivorship

The Western Australian Comprehensive Kids Cancer Centre has a focus on holistic treatment and support. We know that childhood cancer survivors face long-term medical, emotional, and social challenges. By combining world-class research with a dedicated survivorship clinic, we will help kids not only survive but thrive post-treatment Through evidence-based, interdisciplinary research, we aim to reduce the adverse effects of cancer treatment so survivors can live happy, healthy lives

Our survivorship work

In the lab: Understanding late effects

Our researchers are developing world-first preclinical models to study how treatments impact a child long after therapy ends. These models allow us to test new, safer treatments before they reach clinical trials. This helps predict potential late effects of treatments, identify interventions to reduce or eliminate them and fight cancer more effectively.

In the clinic: Improving quality of life

Our survivorship team includes clinicians, nurses, allied health professionals and other experts. They are working to identify and address late effects related to treatment, and educate patients, families and community about the long-term risks associated with childhood cancer and its treatment and how to reduce them.

The WA Comprehensive Kids Cancer Centre has strengthened our clinical research capabilities and underpins a comprehensive survivorship program, enabling rigorous investigation into the physical, psychological and educational impacts of childhood cancer and its treatment.

How our research is improving survivorship

By connecting cutting-edge lab science with holistic, long-term clinical care, we are working to ensure childhood cancer survivors can thrive. From delivering safer treatments, to better monitoring and establishing early interventions, our research is shaping a future where surviving childhood cancer means growing up strong, healthy and with the freedom to pursue their dreams.

Physical health research

We are investigating ways to minimise long-term side-effects caused by cancer treatments. By better understanding these risks, we aim to prevent them, or identify them early, so survivors can live healthier adulthoods.

Psychosocial research

Survivorship isn’t just physical. Our researchers and clinicians are studying impacts of treatment on cognitive, emotional and mental health and developing strategies to support children’s learning, resilience and overall wellbeing during treatment, throughout their recovery journey and beyond.

Long-term outcomes

By monitoring survivors closely and understanding the lifelong impacts of treatment, we aim to greatly reduce late effects and help each child transition into adulthood.

Key projects

Clinical expansion

We are expanding our multidisciplinary clinical research team to systematically investigate the holistic needs of cancer survivors, integrating medical, nursing, psychological, educational and sub-specialty expertise. The addition of psychology enables rigorous assessment of psychosocial outcomes in patients and families. Structured educational support is being developed as a measurable intervention, while sub-specialty collaboration with gynaecology, endocrinology and genetics will facilitate prospective investigation of late treatment effects. At a national level, we are engaging with colleagues to identify, quantify and address the challenges facing survivors and their families through coordinated research efforts.

Improving treatments for childhood cancer while protecting the developing brain

Our laboratory work aims to develop safer, more effective treatments for childhood cancer by investigating how cancers grow, how the immune system responds, and how therapies affect brain development. Using advanced lab models and imaging tools, we seek to reduce long-term side effects and improve outcomes for young patients.

Developing translational strategies to protect the developing brain during childhood cancer treatment

By integrating clinically relevant laboratory models with translatable behavioural assessments and intervention testing, this project aims to deliver insights that cannot be obtained from clinical cohorts alone. It will provide developmental evidence defining how widely used, and emerging childhood cancer treatments alter brain structure, cognition, behaviour, and immune development. We are also looking for new interventions to mitigate treatment-related late effects.

Teneille’s survivorship story

Teneille McBain, the first daughter of Neil and Sherrie, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia two months after her first birthday. Her treatment was long and complex, including multiple chemotherapies, a clinical trial and more. She finished treatment just before turning four and soon started kindergarten.

As she has grown older, Teneille has experienced a range of late effects linked to her treatment, including physical, social and psychological effects. With survival rates increasing, there is now a strong focus on what happens after survival, ensuring survivors can maintain their quality of life, long term.

“Survival is absolutely not the end of the journey and never will be,” says Teneille’s Mum Sherrie.

“Thankfully researchers have been listening to the community of survivors and there is now a strong focus on finding less harmful treatments in the first instance, and better support for survivors facing late effects”, she said.

For Teneille and her family, the Survivorship Clinic provided the consistent and practical support they needed post-treatment.

“The Survivorship team were truly amazing! It wasn't until we entered the Survivorship Clinic that we finally felt Teneille's care was more than just checking if the cancer was back. The emphasis shifted. It wasn't just about cancer anymore; it was about Teneille – the whole person. It's as though they were saying ‘the cancer's been taken care of, now let's take care of you’,” Sherrie said.

For families like Teneille’s, survivorship services are essential. Survivors require specialised monitoring, coordinated multidisciplinary care, and mental health support from practitioners who understand their unique challenges. Sherrie is excited to see how the new WA Comprehensive Kids Cancer Centre will strengthen and resource this vital service, ensuring survivors have as much support as possible while navigating complex late effects.

A young child in a hospital corridor rings a ceremonial bell to mark the end of cancer treatment, surrounded by smiling family members, nurses and hospital staff clapping and celebrating.

Survivorship resources

Information for patients and families who have finished childhood cancer treatment.

Professor Nick Gottardo

Clinical Director | Theme Lead, Survivorship (interim)

Professor Nick Gottardo is Clinical Director of the WA Comprehensive Kids Cancer Centre, Head of the Paediatric Oncology and Haematology Department at Perth Children’s Hospital, co-leads the Brain Tumour Research team at The Kids Research Institute Australia and is a Professor at The University of Western Australia.

Professor Gottardo is a clinician-scientist who develops novel treatments for children's cancer with the aim to reduce long-term side effects. He provides the best possible treatment for all children in Western Australia and globally. His work has led to the establishment of the Perth Children’s Hospital Oncology Clinical Trials Unit, expanding cutting-edge therapies for children in WA.

He is the recent past chair of ANZCHOG (Australian and New Zealand Children’s Haematology/Oncology Group), Australia and New Zealand’s childhood cancer cooperative trial group and peak body for childhood cancer and sits on the Executive and Steering Committees of CONNECT, the international paediatric neuro-oncology clinical trials network and a member of the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) Central Nervous System (CNS) Tumor committee. His work has been published in Nature, Nature Medicine, and The Lancet Oncology. He was named Cancer Council WA Researcher of the Year in 2022.