The Zero Childhood Cancer Program - From Promise To Precision

Monday Lunch Livestream

With Associate Professor Vanessa Tyrrell

6 December 2021

Join the program leader of the Zero Childhood Cancer (ZERO) initiative for an overview of  Australia’s most comprehensive national child cancer precision medicine program, providing hope to families nationally. 

Every year in Australia, more than 1000 children and adolescents are diagnosed with cancer - more than any other disease. Sadly, many survivors of childhood cancer suffer serious side effects, sometimes for the rest of their lives. 

ZERO is Australia’s first-ever personalised medicine program for children and adolescents with high risk cancers. ZERO makes use of cutting-edge technologies to understand the unique characteristics of each patient’s cancer, and uses the latest science to examine the molecules inside the cells to look for the cause of the cancer, and the best treatment methods.

ZERO is a joint initiative of the Children’s Cancer Institute, and the Kids Cancer Centre, Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick.

This presentation reviews the data from previous cohorts of children with aggressive cancers and the future direction of the program. It will cover the programs long term vision to revolutionise the children's model of care and provide more effective treatment options, resulting in better outcomes for all.

Associate Professor Vanessa Tyrrell

Assoc Prof Vanessa Tyrrell is Co-Head of the Personalised Medicine Theme, and Program Leader of the Zero Childhood Cancer National Precision Medicine Program at Children’s Cancer Institute, with accountability for strategy, ensuring efficient, effective, and medically responsible delivery of all aspects of the program whilst building it into a sustainable national precision medicine platform in the long term.

Vanessa is a Fellow of the Human Genetics Society of Australasia (FHGSA), Associate of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (ARCPA), and has obtained Masters in Business Management (MBA) and BScBiomed. With 30 years of experience in genetic testing in public and private health pathology, and commercial industry, she has extensive knowledge of clinical diagnostic genetics service delivery in both public and private sectors, laboratory management, accreditation, and quality assurance. She has experience in the global genomic and molecular biology industry with senior leadership of the AsiaPac region; managed genomics projects and policy development nationally for the The Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA), interacted with the Federal Department of Health and Medical Service Advisory Committee on genomics guidelines and pilots, and is a past member of the NHMRC’s Human Genetics Advisory Committee. She is currently a member NSW Health Genomics Strategy Translational Medicine Committee and immediate Past President of the HGSA.