Chidren's Cancer Institute Australia
We were privileged to have two researchers from the Children's Cancer Institute of Australia visit us this week. Our Rotary Club has a long and strong relationship with CCIA, driven for 20 years by Rtn Luciano Liberale, with significant funds provided each year for research into gentler yet effective ways to treat children with cancer.
Dr Orazio Vittorio explained how CCIA is examining the introduction of new technologies to reduce the toxicity and improve the specificity of anticancer drugs.
His research centres on the use of Nanotechnology, which is a recent approach that involves designing polymers able to encapsulate and deliver therapeutic drugs or genetic material specifically to tumour cells. There are many challenges to be overcome with this technology and with a sustained and focused research effort, CCIA hope to see this nanotechnology make an effective contribution to the treatment of cancer.
More information is available at www.ccia.org.au