New Fellowship for childhood brain cancer research to build relations between international researchers

GROWING relations with international researchers is the aim of a new fellowship being launched this Saturday in North Fremantle.

Inspired by six-year-old Ethan Davies, the Fellowship for Childhood Brain Cancer Research will build on the success of the scholarship also named in his honour by facilitating joint research between the Telethon Kids Institute and other research institutes around the world.

Researcher and clinician Nick Gottardo said the fellowship recipient would focus on childhood ependymoma, the third most common childhood brain tumour, and establish links with researchers worldwide.

“The brain tumour team in the Telethon Kids Cancer Centre is driven by an urgent desire to prove that children can be saved from this cruel killer,” Dr Gottardo said.

The Ethan Davies Scholarship for Brain Cancer Research was set up by the Success boy’s parents Shannon and Christie-Lee after Ethan was diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2012.

Shannon Davies said the fellowship would fill a funding gap identified by the Telethon Kids Institute and ensure research was not unnecessarily duplicated.

“Very few people are aware that brain cancer is currently the greatest non-accidental killer of children in Australia, with survival rates for the past decade having reached a plateau well below that of other childhood cancers, such as leukaemia,” he said.

“There is also a critical need to develop better treatments to address the long-term health problems often suffered by survivors.”