Funded by the V Foundation’s Virginia Vine event, in honor of WWE Connor’s Cure
Cancer in children is rare, accounting for less than 1% of all cancer cases in the USA. Clinical trials are used to determine the most effective and safest treatment for a disease and are commonly used in cancer treatment for children, adolescents, and young adults. The main reason that children are not enrolled on clinical trials is that there is not an open trial available. However, some nationally available trials could be opened faster when needed in local hospitals or cancer centers. Currently, the process is quite complicated and involves many steps. Our goal is to develop a “library” of available clinical trials that could be activated quickly on an as needed basis for children with rare tumors or with a cancer that does not respond to standard treatment. We will examine the barriers to rapid activation, educate the committees that are involved in clinical trial activation at our institution about the uniqueness of childhood cancer, and come up with a process for rapid clinical trial activation for childhood cancer at the Massey Cancer Center.