Fighting Cancer: Researchers in Sydney ease kids off chemotherapy's side effect

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Children with certain types of cancer often have to fight two battles, cancer itself, and the side effects from chemotherapy, which can lead to serious health risks later in life. Now researchers in Sydney have created a way to target tumours with life-saving medicine without harming healthy cells. Greg Navarro has more.

Ask Josi Demitriou how to describe her daughter and chances are 8-year old Lulu will offer her opinion.

JOSI DEMETRIOU LULU'S MOTHER "Lulu is a bright, bubbly, beautiful girl."

LuLu "I'm not bubbly."

"With an infectious personality."

Artistic and athletic also come to mind. But there's one thing that is not as evident about this bright little girl.

JOSI DEMETRIOU LULU'S MOTHER "When you hear your child has cancer, you are thrown into the deep end, every parent's worst nightmare."

An aggressive neuroblastoma, a cancer of the nervous system, first diagnosed when Lulu was just 8 months old. In addition to fighting the cancer, she's had to cope with the side effects from 12 rounds of chemotherapy.

JOSI DEMETRIOU LULU'S MOTHER "Fevers because they are immune suppressed, they are more likely to develop infections, anaemia, nausea, vomiting so it is quite taxing on anyone let alone an 8-month-old baby."

GREG NAVARRO SYDNEY "In fact, about half of all children in hospitals here related to cancer are being treated for side effects."

PROFESSOR MARIA KAVALLARIS CHILDREN'S CANCER INSTITUTE "I was back in hospital for the side effects every second treatment because they were quite severe.”

Maria Kavallaris is a cancer survivor. She is also leading clinical trials at Sydney's Children's Cancer Institute that are testing a new way to target cancer cells.

PROFESSOR MARIA KAVALLARIS CHILDREN'S CANCER INSTITUTE "We can attach antibodies which are these nano cells so when they are circulating they can recognise the tumour cell, bind and get taken up into the tumour cell and release their cargo.”

The technology was developed by Sydney biotech company Engenic. What makes it unique is the ability to stop the cancer-killing medication from reaching healthy cells.

JENNIFER MACDIARMID JOINT CEO, ENGENIC "You've got something that will go directly to the cancer cell, target onto it, lock onto it and get taken into the cancer cell so there is no spilling of the drug all over the place, it just goes to the cancer cell."

The early results from clinical tests here on children are promising, and researchers say this first of its kind delivery system could also be used to treat other types of cancers.

JOSI DEMETRIOU LULU'S MOTHER "We desperately need, safer, less toxic, more effective treatments.”

Treatments that Josi Demetriou says could one day give Lulu and other children battling cancer the best chance at the kind of future they deserve. Greg Navarro, CGTN, Sydney.