A re-elected Turnbull Coalition Government will help provide personalised treatments for children with high risk cancers through ground breaking high-tech research collaboration.
Australia has a proud history of medical research which has led to life-changing medical advancements, and saved millions of lives worldwide.
Important Australian discoveries include Sir Howard Florey’s production of penicillin and Professor Graeme Clark’s more recent development of the cochlear implant.
The Turnbull Government is committed to advancing Australia’s role in this world-leading medical research.
We will invest $20 million to help establish a national research collaboration called the Zero Childhood Cancer Initiative.
This Initiative, established by the Children’s Cancer Institute and the Sydney Children’s Hospital, will enhance our knowledge of genomic sequencing and provide faster, cheaper and more accurate diagnosis to inform the most appropriate clinical interventions.
Each year about 1000 children are diagnosed with cancer.
Survival rates are improving, thanks to advances in technology and treatments, but each year there are still about 200 children who are diagnosed with forms of cancer that have no cure or do not respond to conventional treatments.
The Zero Childhood Cancer Initiative will be focused on children with untreatable cancers.
The ultimate aim of this initiative is to push survival rates for childhood cancer up towards 100%.
The initiative will also improve treatments for all childhood cancers, helping reduce the long-term effects of cancer-related therapies on survivors.
The Zero Childhood Cancer Initiative will establish a national network of clinical and research collaborators in every major city.
The network will give every child diagnosed with cancer access to the best therapy, tailored to their specific disease and individual genetic characteristics.
The initiative will help make Australia a world leader in personalised medicine for childhood cancer.
It will add to the Coalition’s strong record of supporting medical research, with investments of around $10 billion a year to deliver tangible outcomes.
The Coalition has established the landmark Medical Research Future Fund, which will provide $1 billion a year once fully established.
As part of the National Innovation and Science Agenda, the Coalition also created the Biomedical Translation Fund, by making $500 million of public and private funds available to boost and commercialise more biomedical discoveries.
Supporting cutting edge medical research and technologies will help to develop practical solutions to improve the health and wellbeing of Australians.
It will also create many opportunities and new jobs, pushing forward the frontier of knowledge and supporting our economic plan for a more innovative and competitive nation.
