Monday Lunch Live
26 May 2025 (Video recording below)
One-in-five childhood cancers is a sarcoma – a rare type of cancer that originates in connective tissue, including fat, muscle, bone and cartilage. They can develop anywhere in the body and are among the most common types of solid tumours in children.
Sarcoma is also, for the third year in succession, projected to be the leading cause of cancer related death in the 10-24 age group in Australia. Survival rates for many sarcomas have remained unchanged for decades and are particularly poor for patients with relapsed and metastatic disease.
The Childhood and Adolescent Sarcoma Research Program is focused on discovery and clinical sarcoma research, with a focus on osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma. The integrated program is working to better understand the underlying causes of sarcoma development and progression, and to identify improved therapeutic strategies that will lead to better outcomes.
Join us to hear more about this critical endeavour, and how we can transform the future of sarcoma care for children and adolescents.
Chair
Associate Professor Jeremy Lewin
Honorary Clinical Associate Professor, Sir Peter MacCallum Department of Oncology, University of Melbourne; Medical Oncologist, Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre
A/Prof Jeremy Lewin practices as a medical oncologist at Peter Mac and the Medical Director of ONTrac at the Peter Mac Victorian Adolescent and Young Adult Service. In addition, A/Prof Lewin serves as the medical oncology lead of the sarcoma group at Peter Mac and sits on the scientific advisory committee of the Australia and New Zealand Sarcoma Association.
Speaker
My Room Children’s Cancer Charity Research Fellow; Deputy Centre Head, Centre for Cancer Research, Research Group Head, Developmental and Cancer Biology; Lead, My Room Children's Cancer Charity Research Laboratory and Childhood and Adolescent Sarcoma Research Program, Hudson Institute of Medical Research
A/Prof Jason Cain is a developmental and cancer biologist involved in full time basic research for the last 19 years. After completing his BSc (2000), BSc(Hons) (2001) and PhD (2006) in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at Monash University, he undertook post-doctoral training at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada with Dr Norman Rosenblum in the Program of Developmental and Stem Cell Biology. Here, he focused on the role of the Hedgehog signaling pathway in development and disease, developing valuable and specialised skills in developmental biology, mouse models of human disease, and congenital and pediatric diseases.
In December 2010, he was recruited back to Australia as a Research Fellow with Dr Neil Watkins (Professor of Cancer and Developmental Biology, NHMRC Senior Research Fellow, and Consultant Physician) at the Monash Institute for Medical Research (MIMR). Here, A/Prof Cain developed his current research program in childhood and adolescent cancers, combining a unique skill set of developmental and cancer biology expertise, techniques and concepts.
In 2014, he was appointed Head of the Developmental and Cancer Biology laboratory at the Hudson Institute of Medical Research, where A/Prof Cain is also the lead of the Childhood and Adolescent Sarcoma Research Program. The program is focused on discovery and clinical sarcoma research, with a focus on osteosarcoma and Ewing sarcoma.
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