Telethon 2023: Researchers looking for new treatments for kids like Charlie Fry, who battles brain cancer

In the year since he was diagnosed with a paediatric brain cancer known as Medulloblastoma, three-year-old Charlie Fry has at times received chemotherapy doses higher than some adult cancer patients would.

It’s an intense treatment regime that Charlie’s mum Eve Fry said has taken a huge toll on her son’s little body.

“The treatment they receive is so outdated, but that’s the only option we have,” Mrs Fry said.

“He did six weeks of radiation and it’s just crazy to think how awful that is for such a tiny little body.

“At that age as well the detrimental effects it has on brain development is such a huge thing.

“You’re faced with two options though either don’t do the treatment, or do the treatment and accept the long-term effects of it, and every other mother on the ward would say it’s the lesser of two evils but in itself it creates more problems.”

While Charlie has finished active treatment which included surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, he and his family are still dealing with effects of that treatment on his body, and they likely will for some time.

Researchers at the Telethon Kid’s Institute are hard at work though, looking for new treatments for children just like him.

And that research has been boosted by a joint $6.5 million State Government and Telethon Trust funding grant for the WA Child Research Fund.

“One of the things that always surprises people is that brain cancer kills more children than any other disease in Australia,” Pirate Ship Research Fellow Dr Annabel Short said.

“A lot of the other cancers and survival rates have really progressed but it’s not the same for Medulloblastoma, the survival rates really haven’t improved at all in 20 years.

“There’s been a lot of success in other cancers using things like immunotherapies (but) we haven’t really had a lot of success so far in paediatric cancer or brain cancers.

“We’re hoping — especially from this grant — that we can use that with some of the existing treatments so they can work together and do a better job of attacking the cancer.”

Medical Research Minister Stephen Dawson said the funding and the research projects are integral to having better outcomes for sick kids.

He said the many projects funded by the grant — which include work by University of WA Professor Mark Nicol developing next-generation probiotics to prevent childhood pneumonia — are key to finding new ways to prevent, diagnose and treat diseases and chronic conditions in WA children.

A nurse herself, Mrs Fry said she wanted to highlight the need for more awareness and funding for less toxic medicine for children.

“A lot of these medications have been around since like the 60s and nothing has really changed,” Mrs Fry said.

“The biggest thing we need is more gentle options of treatment for little children.”