Your support is enabling life changing cancer research

Your support is helping to revolutionise treatment for brain lymphoma

At Mater, we know that research is the single greatest tool we have in the fight against cancer. Your support of Cars for Cancer is enabling our researchers to continue that fight and giving hope to patients and their families of a brighter future.

Hope for people with rare cancers

A dual precision therapy developed by Mater Researcher, Professor Maher Gandhi, is expected to revolutionise the care given to those diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma (cancer) in immunocompromised people, referred to as EBV-associated brain lymphoma (cancer).

EBV-associated brain lymphoma is a rare and deadly cancer with an overall survival of only ten months.  Prof. Gandhi is leading a world first clinical trial to improve treatment for relapsed lymphoma patients.

Once identified, patients’ T-cells (the killers of the immune system) are extracted then engineered to identify and attack a specific protein on tumour cells. The T-cells are then ‘cloned’ until there are hundreds of millions of cells, then inserted back into the patient. It is like giving the patient a ‘living drug’ that can recognise and kill their cancer.

“I remember when I was a trainee doctor, seeing patients like this, there was always a lot of interest because the disease is quite rare. It was alongside a lot of disappointment, too, because it was so hard to treat. While this breakthrough is a promising step in the right direction it is important to understand this treatment is still far from being available to the general public as all therapies must follow due process of testing and approvals. We are leading a national clinical trial to confirm our initial results.”

Your support of Cars for Cancer is helping Prof. Gandhi and his team conduct this incredible and potentially life changing research. You are helping to change lives with every ticket that you buy! Thank you for your support!