Roswell Park Pediatric Areas of Special Expertise

Brain Tumors

Treatment at the multidisciplinary brain tumor clinic includes investigational drug therapies, the use of stereotactic radiosurgery in selected cases, and long term follow-up, including management of late effects. Stereotactic radiation therapy enables a high dose of radiation to be delivered to a small, intracranial area without harming adjacent tissue.

Long-Term Survivors

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center operates a Long-Term Follow-Up Clinic, created to provide specialized medical care and counseling to former childhood cancer patients. It was one of the first of its kind in the nation. Dramatic success in the treatment of childhood cancers has resulted in a population of survivors who may have unique problems, such as difficulty in finding employment, questions concerning their reproductive capability because of cancer and its treatment, and the possibility of developing other malignancies later in life. This Clinic assists cancer survivors in building full, productive lives.

Lymphoma

Investigators at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center sit on the Hodgkin’s Disease core committee for the Children’s Oncology Group (COG) and have chaired multiple institutional trials for Hodgkin’s Disease. State-of-the-art diagnostic screening and cutting-edge therapies, including several immunotherapeutic trials (i.e., unlabeled and radiolabeled monoclonal antibody trials in the treatment of B-cell lymphomas), institutional and cooperative group trials, as well as standard and high-dose transplant therapies are available. Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center investigators piloted clinical trials in advanced small non-cleaved-cell lymphoma which contributed to subsequent Children’s Oncology Group (COG) multi-institutional trials. Survival for patients with advanced stage disease has improved significantly, with more than 70 percent of patients cured.

Orthopedic Oncology

Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center introduced a new surgical technique which saves the limbs of over 90 percent of soft tissue sarcoma patients whose options were once limited to amputation. The multidisciplinary team emphasizes limb-sparing procedures, new drug therapies, and rehabilitation.

Stem Cell and Blood and Marrow Transplantation

The Roswell Park BMT team utilizes allogeneic and autologous blood and marrow transplantation, stem cell infusion, and umbilical cord transplantation in the treatment of pediatric malignancies and bone marrow failure stages. We are a National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) collection and transplant center. In addition, we are participating members and have current clinical trials with the Pediatric Blood and Marrow Transplant Consortium and the National COBLT study for umbilical cord blood transplantation sponsored by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute.