Pediatric Clinical Trials

Available clinical trials

Roswell Park opens new clinical trials every day. Talk to your oncologist about which ones might be right for your child's cancer.

Pediatric clinical trials

What are clinical trials?

Clinical trials are the final stages of cancer research that assess a potential new drug or therapy that’s already been studied extensively in the laboratory. Trials are carefully monitored scientific studies that involve patients and offer the earliest access to these newest treatment options.

Trials are conducted to determine a drug’s proper dose, how well it works and whether it’s more effective than current standard treatments. All drugs and treatment approaches currently used as standard of care were once studied in clinical trials.

Why it matters

Participating in a clinical trial is the only way to access the very latest options, oftentimes years before they become available to other providers. If your child has cancer, you need the very best treatment today, not years from now.

Clinical trial resources

Making the decision for your child to take part in a clinical trial can be a challenge, both emotionally and mentally. These resources may help as you learn more about the clinical trial process at Roswell Park:

Roswell Park Oishei Children’s expertise

As the very first dedicated cancer research center in the nation, Roswell Park has strived for better, more effective and less toxic cancer treatments for more than a century. We collaborate with other cancer centers and organizations to offer pediatric clinical trials that bring the latest breakthroughs to our youngest patients here in Buffalo and beyond.

  • Experimental therapeutics program. Led by internationally renowned pediatric oncologist Clare Twist, MD, this program allows our pediatric patients access to novel therapies only available through early-phase clinical trials. Many clinical trials for adult patients are now available to our pediatric, adolescent and young adult patients. This means your child can have experimental cancer treatment right here in our facility, keeping you and your child closer to family, your support system and care team.
  • Dana-Farber Cancer Institute/ALL Consortium. As one of seven collaborating institutions, Roswell Park Oishei Children’s is able to offer our patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) the very latest options for this diagnosis. The results are outstanding: patients on clinical trials through the Consortium have a five-year event-free survival rate of more than 86 percent and above 90 percent for standard risk groups.