Australian breakthrough in brain cancer treatment

0:00A major Australian breakthrough could help scientists overcome one of the biggest barriers in cancer treatment, developing drugs designed to sneak inside the brain. Our health editor Jennifer Beshwati has the details. Yes, good afternoon. It's one of the biggest problems in treating brain cancer. We have the drugs that can fight the cancer, but the brain's own defence system can stop them getting in. The blood brain barrier protects the brain from harmful substances, but it can also block up to 98% of cancer drugs. Now Australian scientists are developing a way to outsmart it, using a biological Trojan horse to smuggle cancer-killing medicines into the brain. What we want to do is to find options and strategies to help these drugs cross the blood brain barrier and reach the tumor. A whole range of potentially really efficacious drugs could now be used to treat brain tumors,

1:07and really the impact would be quite transformative for patients. The research has just received $19 million in federal funding targeting some of the most aggressive and deadly brain cancers. Brain tumors are a leading cause of cancer death in Australians under 40, with survival rates barely improving in decades. This is the result of years of collaboration, many of the greatest minds in our country working together. And if you've ever bought a beanie or donated to one of the crazy adventures we've done, I wonder if it ever happens to the money that I donate to. It's to discoveries like this. This will be a game changer. But when will this actually be available for patients? I'll have all the details tonight at 6 on 7 News.