THANKS to your donations and investment in research, amazing advancements have been made in cancer prevention, screening and treatment – helping to increase survival rates from 49 per cent in the 1980s to 69 per cent today.
According to the Cancer Council, and thanks to people like you, Australia will be the first country in the world to eliminate cervical cancer by 2035.
Sixty years ago, a diagnosis of leukaemia was nearly always a death sentence for a child. Today, the vast majority of children diagnosed with leukaemia will survive their condition.
Over the past 10 years, exciting discoveries in immunotherapy are also offering patients alternative treatments to chemotherapy and radiation.
Immunotherapy is revolutionising cancer treatment, particularly for diseases such as melanoma. However, immunotherapy is yet to make a substantial impact on the management of other deadly cancers such as advanced breast cancer but that is changing too with new strategies being developed and thereby reducing the mortality of this disease.
While the past few decades have seen some amazing improvements in treatment and survival for many childhood cancers, it is still the number one cause of disease-related death in Australian children aged 1-14 years.
Cancer Council is committed to saving the lives of all children with cancer, and key to this is the provision of support for world class research like that being undertaken by the Australian Childhood Cancer Registry (ACCR).
Today, the ACCR is one of the longest running projects of its kind in the world. It has had a huge impact on how childhood cancer is viewed and managed both here in Australia and abroad.
The pace of research is entirely determined by the amount of funding that Cancer Council receives. Australian researchers have the talent, the ideas and the technology, and with the continued support of Cancer Council donors, will achieve a cancer free future.
