Ongoing research provides the best hope for brain tumour patients’ survival and improved quality of life.  Cure for Life Foundation (CFLF) aims to be the premiere research funding body in the southern hemisphere dedicated to finding the cure for brain cancer.

CFLF is proud to be part of the new Lowy Cancer Research Centre at the University of New South Wales opening in October 2009.

The focus of the CFLF research team will be glioblastoma multiforme, the most common and deadliest of all brain tumours.

The Lowy Cancer Research Centre will be an Australian first, bringing together childhood and adult cancer research at one site. Housing up to 400 researchers from UNSW and the Children’s Cancer Institute Australia (CCIA), the centre will be one of the largest dedicated cancer research centres in the Southern Hemisphere.

The next stage in this campus will be a University of New South Wales and Prince of Wales Hospital collaborative to build a Clinical Trials Research Facility located between the two institutions. This will provide the research team with the vehicle to trial new therapies that have been developed at the Lowy Cancer Research Centre.

Dr Kerrie McDonald, recently appointed Chair of the Neuro-oncology Laboratory at the Lowy Cancer Research Centre, UNSW, presented her latest research at the Cure for Life Cocktail party. Experiments in the new lab commenced last week. The Neuro-oncology lab is focusing on two major research challenges. The group is looking at novel ways to stop brain cancer cells from migrating from the original tumour site and re-establishing itself in another part of the brain. This is the major reason why surgery and radiotherapy have limited effectiveness. The lab is also looking at how we can better identify patients who will respond favourably to chemotherapy treatment. This is a huge issue facing clinicians. It is crucial that we identify and validate new biomarkers that can predict clinical response: to avoid unnecessary toxicity in patients that fail to respond to treatment and to better understand drug resistance. This improved knowledge could lead to new strategies to overcome resistance.

For more information about the Lowy Cancer Research Centre click here