Mission
Mission
Cancer is the second most common cause of death in children. The high standard of our health system guarantees all patients access to established treatment methods and to save children's lives is not only worth while, but also an investment into the future of our society. However, optimal treatment of young patients with leukemias or other malignant diseases is only possible, if the most powerful recent research possibilities in medical sciences are applied - especially, since these tumors have special characteristics discriminating them from tumors of the adulthood.
As pediatric tumors can be seen as rare diseases, they are neglected by the pharmaceutical industry for economical reasons. Therefore, the mission of the Children’s Cancer Research Institute is to advance diagnoses and cures for pediatric oncologic patients by conducting research into the specific features of childhood tumors and to adjust accepted treatment methods for adults to the needs of young patients in separate clinical studies. This combined approach to applied and basic science is conducted by the multidisciplinary team of the CCRI: With the aim to make the most innovative and best treatment options available to young cancer patients in Austria and abroad.
Originally the Children’s Cancer Research Institute wanted to offer patients with leukemias and malignant solid tumors a reliable diagnosis and more sophisticated treatments by employing new high-end techniques. Thus, the focus is on cytogenetic and molecular genetic questions, basic research to understand the biology of individual tumor entities (such as Ewing's tumor or neuroblastoma) as well as on questions about hematopoietic stem cell research for transplantation.
The fast development in the field of hemato-oncology in the last decades led to an increasing diversification of questions, also in our institute, and has consequently been reflected in the activities of the research institute: Monitoring minimal residual disease in leukemias and solid tumors; exact identification and early dynamics of hematopoietic precursor cell engraftment; novel immunotherapeutic strategies. In more than one approach we have chosen to address these areas of research, which has proven essential to improve patient treatment.
The success of our institute contributed to growing demands for expansion. On the one hand this is due to increasing staff in the individual research teams. But it was also necessary to establish new teams in novel areas of research to remain at the forefront of science and finally to become a dedicated laboratory for diagnostic tests, which have become routine in the meantime. One particular concern for the future will be to keep and improve the high scientific standard, a goal to which periodical reviews by the scientific advisory board will contribute.
I would like to take the opportunity to thank all employees for their commitment, the collaborating institutions for their contributions to our research, the countless sponsors for their generous donations and various funding agencies that support our research, without which we would not be able to succeed in the fight against cancer in children.
Prof. H. Gadner,
M.D. Director of the Institute
In case you would like to learn more about the research activities of the CCRI, you might find the annual report useful (English and German): Annual Report
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