Charlie’s Letters « Charlie Teo Foundation

It takes a collective force to make an impact

Charlie Teo Foundation is proud to share with you our latest video and letter from our founder showcasing the impact of our research.

In our first 4 years, the Charlie Teo Foundation has committed over $9 million to game-changing brain cancer research. We have connected disruptive brain cancer thinkers across the globe, encouraging collaborations and the sharing of new ideas. 

With your support, we continue to forge ahead. Please make your tax-deductible donation by 30 June to keep this momentum going and allow us to fund more research. Together we can truly make an impact!

2nd June 2022

Hello Friends,

I am at the coal face. It’s very easy for me to be passionate about a disease where I see beautiful people dying every day.

But what I know more than ever is that the answers to brain cancer aren’t going to be found alone. It will take a collective force to make an impact.

Hello Friends,

I am at the coal face. It’s very easy for me to be passionate about a disease where I see beautiful people dying every day.

But what I know more than ever is that the answers to brain cancer aren’t going to be found alone. It will take a collective force to make an impact.

Recently I was in Bogotá, Colombia at the 17th World Congress of Neurosurgery. It was incredibly inspiring and stimulating to have 1,600 neurosurgeons and scientists gather from about 85 countries to learn from each other and rekindle connections. I was asked to give several talks each day, and felt reassured from other experts that the projects the Charlie Teo Foundation is funding are unique and promising.

I continue to operate overseas on the world’s most difficult tumours and have been welcomed and celebrated by every country visited. I have recently been Visiting Professor to Johns Hopkins University, Cedars-Sinai Hospital and the Mayo Clinic. I have been doing pro bono work in Africa, Asia and India and lecturing, teaching and advising on almost every continent.

I am also proud and honoured to have just been made an Honorary Member of the Spanish Neurosurgical Society for my development and dissemination of minimally invasive techniques in neurosurgery, contribution to neurosurgical education in developing countries and promotion of research into brain cancer. 

Research Symposium

Charlie Teo Foundation held our first ever Brain Cancer Research Symposium in March 2022.

Every scientist funded by the Charlie Teo Foundation had the opportunity to present their projects, and patients and families shared their heart-breaking stories. As a testament to how engaged and dedicated they were, not a single person exited the virtual meeting until its completion.

The presentations were exciting, innovative, scientifically robust, novel and readily translatable to the bedside. The scientists were equally passionate about their projects as they were to share ideas and collaborate with each other.

The symposium gave me an incredibly positive feeling about the worth of the Charlie Teo Foundation. Everything that I had set out to achieve, I felt was coming to fruition… and at a much more accelerated rate than I ever imagined! It honestly made me as proud as the day my first child was born.

The goals of Charlie Teo Foundation were to be disruptive, transparent, fiscally lean and tenacious in our pursuit of finding treatments for Australian patients specifically, and all brain tumour patients.

I felt incredibly emotional and confident listening to all these disruptive thinkers and urge you to watch the highlight video of our symposium at the top of my letter. I know that the Charlie Teo Foundation is carrying out on exactly what we set out to achieve when we opened our doors 4 years ago.

View the Symposium program

The answers to brain cancer aren’t going to be found alone

Grant Announcements

We proactively seek out who we consider to be the best brains from around the globe to study brain cancer for the benefit of Australian patients. Let me introduce you to our newest researchers:

Profs David Cormode and Jay Dorsey – Treating GBM in a FLASH

We have awarded a grant of $295k to Profs Cormode and Dorsey of the University of Pennsylvania to investigate an emerging technique called FLASH Radiotherapy (FLASH-RT) in combination with a drug-loaded gel (called a hydrogel) to treat and kill GBM tumours.

This treatment approach works by first injecting the hydrogel into the cavity where the GBM tumour was surgically removed and then treating with a rapid, high-dose radiotherapy technique called FLASH-RT. Using this approach means the treatment time is dramatically shortened, whilst also minimising damage to the healthy surrounding brain. FLASH-RT also triggers the release of the GBM-killing drug contained within the hydrogel. This project hopes to show that this two-pronged attack will kill the residual cancer cells that could not be surgically removed and will prevent the cancer from coming back.

Prof Craig Horbinski – Diagnosing childhood brain cancer using a simple blood test

At our research symposium, a mother shared her daughter’s brain cancer journey and raised the urgent need to improve early diagnosis of childhood brain cancer. Our foundation immediately sought out researchers leading the charge in the diagnostics space to tackle this critical community need. 

In our search, we identified Prof Craig Horbinski at Northwestern University as a pioneer. He is currently evaluating a blood test to diagnose brain cancer in adults. We have awarded Prof Hosbinski $276k to now set his sights on developing a similar test for children. This test works by pulling out DNA floating in blood and analysing DNA patterns. It is hoped this technique will identify cancer type and allow for early diagnosis of childhood brain cancer, all from a simple blood test.

We are bringing together the best brains to beat brain cancer

This tax-time I want you to think of people with brain cancer. They are thrust totally out of their comfort zone, facing the biggest challenge of their life.

I’d like you to support our Challenge 4 Brain Cancer and make your tax-deductible donation today. Typically, I push myself to the edge – radical brain surgery, riding a motorbike, never giving up fighting for people with brain cancer and what I believe in. Put simply, I never stop. This is why I am taking the personal challenge to pause, and take some time each day to appreciate the beauty of life. To get outside every day, walk the dogs and get back to nature. And to do these things all while continuing my hard work in brain cancer.

Join me in taking the challenge, or make your tax-deductible donation this June. The funds raised this year will go directly to fund more rebellious scientists thinking outside the box.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your ongoing support.

Xx

Charlie

Charlie

Dr Charlie Teo AM
Founder