ANZSA Newsletter - August 2025

Message from the CEO of ANZSA

 The past few months have been an exciting and impactful time for ANZSA. Our Sarcoma Awareness Month campaign reached audiences nationwide, including ANZSA’s first feature on the Today Show Weekend, while our inaugural Great Sarcoma Plank-a-thon raised an incredible $130,000 to support sarcoma research and specifically the rEECur clinical trial.

We’re thrilled to announce the launch of the FLORRAL international research study and congratulate our 2025 Sarcoma Research Grant recipients, Dr Paul Daniel from the Hudson Institute of Medical Research and Dr Cui Tu from the Frazer Institute - University of Queensland, for their innovative projects driving new therapies forward.

Looking ahead, we invite you to join us at the Annual Scientific Meeting in Hobart and our Sarcoma Community Connection forum, where collaboration and community will be at the heart of advancing sarcoma care.

Sarcoma Awareness Month Success

Last month, we proudly raised much-needed awareness for sarcoma during our annual Sarcoma Awareness Month campaign.

This year was a wonderful success, with hundreds of radio, TV and print features across Australia and New Zealand. A highlight was the first-time feature of ANZSA on the Today Show Weekend segment.

An integral part of this success was the incredible spokespeople who volunteered to share their sarcoma stories with the world. Thank you to everyone who participated and used their experience and voice to help grow awareness and support critical research.

Looking for Sarcoma Spokespeople

We’re already preparing for next year’s Sarcoma Awareness Month campaign, and we’d love your help! To build on this year’s success, we’re seeking patients, carers, survivors, and families willing to share their stories and be a voice for sarcoma.

If you’re interested in volunteering as a spokesperson, please email us at contact@sarcoma.org.au — we’d love to hear from you.

Sarcoma Awareness Month webinars

During Sarcoma Awareness Month, ANZSA collaborated with the VCCC Alliance to host two educational webinars featuring updates from sarcoma specialists and consumer representatives, sharing multidisciplinary expertise across radiation oncology, medical oncology, and surgery.

A deep dive on liposarcoma webinar: In this webinar learn about multidisciplinary insights and emerging therapies in liposarcoma care.

Molecular sequencing and sarcoma webinar. In this webinar learn about precision medicine in paediatric sarcoma. 

The Inaugural Great Sarcoma Plankathon

Our inaugural Great Sarcoma Plank-a-thon was a tremendous success, raising close to $130,000. We are tremendously proud to have had Paralympian and sarcoma survivor Ellie Cole MC our Melbourne event, and world record holder Daniel Scali plank for the full 60 minutes of the challenge. We are truly grateful for the support from everyone who embraced this initiative and extend a special thank you to our  fundraisers and all those on the ground who worked together to achieve such an impactful result.

Where are the funds going?

The funds raised will directly support the rEECur trial, an international clinical trial designed to identify the most effective chemotherapy for recurrent and treatment-resistant Ewing sarcoma.

Ewing sarcoma can return or become resistant to treatment, and until now, there has been limited evidence to guide the best approach. The rEECur trial is the first study to provide robust, randomised data to inform safer and more effective care.

With more than 600 participants worldwide and 15 centres across Australia and New Zealand, this research represents a significant step forward in improving outcomes for people with Ewing sarcoma.

We’d love to hear your feedback on the Great Sarcoma Plank-a-thon as we work towards organising an even bigger and better event next year!

Complete the Great Sarcoma Plank-a-thon Survey.

The countdown is on for the 2025 Annual Scientific Meeting

Our Annual Scientific Meeting is just a few months away! This year, we’ll gather in Hobart to share expertise, foster collaboration, and drive innovation in sarcoma care and research.

Theme: United Against Sarcoma: Collaboration and Innovation

We are thrilled to welcome International Guest Speaker, Prof. Jason Yustein, paediatric oncologist and physician-scientist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta, Emory University His research focuses on metastasis and therapeutic resistance in sarcomas, using cutting-edge models and genomic techniques to develop new treatment strategies.

Join us for an inspiring meeting as we advance knowledge and improve outcomes for those affected by sarcoma.

View the full scientific program for meeting details

Secure Your Spot

Sarcoma Community Connect

This invitation is open to sarcoma patients, carers, families, and survivors for a chance to connect, share experiences, and engage with the broader sarcoma community.

Topics: 

• Learn about the Consumer Advisory Panel
• Strategies for coping with fear of recurrence
• Latest on immunotherapy for liposarcoma
• Connect with the Sarcoma Community

Where: Crowne Plaza, Hobart & online

When: Saturday 11 October, 12:45 - 1:45pm

• Afternoon tea will be provided following the hybrid session for those who are attending in person at the Crowne Plaza Hobart. 

Sarcoma Research Grant (SRG) Recipients

Congratulations to both of our successful 2025 Sarcoma Research Grant Recipients!

Dr Cui Tu, an early-career cancer immunologist at the Frazer Institute, University of Queensland (UQ), focuses on the tumor microenvironment (TME) in hard-to-treat childhood cancers.

Her research addresses a key challenge: Rhabdomyosarcoma is often a “cold” tumour, meaning immune cells that normally fight cancer struggle to infiltrate and attack the tumour.

Key highlights of her project:

·Investigating a new approach to “heat up” these tumours, making them more responsive to treatment and enhancing immune-mediated cancer elimination.

·Discovery that STING, a protein that activates the immune system, is increased in tumours after chemotherapy.

·Combining chemotherapy with a STING-activating drug has shown promising early results, including slowed tumour growth in preclinical models.

Dr Paul Daniel, a postdoctoral fellow, specialises in low-survival adult and paediatric solid cancers.

His project, “Development of CD70-targeted Antibody-Drug Conjugates for Sarcomas”, builds on the Childhood Cancer Model Atlas (CCMA), an international collaboration using lab-grown models to study childhood cancers and explore new treatments.

Key highlights of his project:

• Identified a protein highly expressed in chordoma, a type of bone sarcoma.

• Developing antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) to deliver therapies directly to cancer cells.

• This study aims to create novel, sarcoma-focused therapies for these devastating cancers.

Exciting ANZSA Research Launch: FLORRAL Study

We are proud to announce the launch of FLORRAL: Risk Stratification for Patients with First Local Recurrence of Retroperitoneal Liposarcoma, a new retrospective data collection study led by ANZSA Director Prof David Gyorki, in collaboration with ANZSA colleagues worldwide.

This international, ANZSA-led study aims to characterise the anatomical location of first local recurrence in patients with retroperitoneal sarcoma, as well as to understand recurrence patterns and explore the various treatment approaches. The study reflects a strong collaborative effort, with more than 20 national and international sites already shown interest in contributing to this valuable data.