Arabic version: فريق من أديلايد يدرس علاجاً إشعاعياً أكثر دقة لسرطان الدماغ

According to ABC News, an Adelaide research team is investigating ways to make radiation more effective at killing brain cancer cells while limiting its impact on healthy tissue and the human immune system. The project has received $240,000 through a new national initiative from the Mark Hughes Foundation Centre for Brain Cancer Research.

The Adelaide team was the first to receive funding under the initiative, which aims to fast track approaches to treating brain cancer and brain tumours. Researchers will examine how radiation interacts with cancer and normal cells at a microscopic level, as well as how radiation affects the immune system.

Adelaide University biophysics professor Ivan Kempson said outcomes for people with brain cancer remain poor. He said survival rates had changed little over the past 35 years, with only two in 10 patients surviving beyond five years. Brain cancer kills more children than any other disease and more people under 40 than any other cancer, he said.

The research uses specialised tools to measure radiation damage to DNA with a level of precision not previously possible, according to Adelaide University. Professor Kempson said the work could provide fundamental information needed for future breakthroughs, with the aim of improving survival rates and quality of life after treatment. Science undergraduate Simran Singh, who was diagnosed with a brain tumour at 12 and later travelled to Florida for proton beam therapy unavailable in Australia, is observing the Adelaide team’s work.