Solid Tumor Program

Learn more about Pediatric Cancer Care

The Pediatric Oncology Solid Tumor Program at Penn State Health Children’s Hospital delivers expert care for children with complex cancers like neuroblastoma, sarcomas and rare cancers. Powered by groundbreaking research from Penn State College of Medicine, we offer advanced, personalized treatments, especially for high-risk and relapsed cases. Our team seamlessly translates laboratory discoveries into bedside applications, ensuring leading-edge clinical trials and first-in-child therapies reach our patients swiftly and effectively. Families who travel from locations near and far trust us for our expertise, innovation and compassionate support.

Clinical trials and research

At any given time, our team will be running studies on solid tumors, all in order to advance care at the bedside.

Available studies can be found here

FDA-approved drug offers improved patient outcomes

Since the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved the first drug to effectively decrease the resurgence of neuroblastoma in 2023, patients and families from around the world have turned to Dr. Giselle Saulnier Sholler and Penn State Health Children’s Hospital to help them beat this aggressive cancer, diagnosed most often in children younger than 6. This breakthrough drug called eflornithine (DFMO) emerged from Sholler’s research and clinical trials she led through the Beat Childhood Cancer Research Consortium.

Building on that success, Sholler and her team are expanding their research into other neuroblastoma treatments, increasing trials for conditions like sarcomas and diffuse midline glioma, a tumor found in the brainstem, and exploring immunotherapy and cellular therapy. Learn about this and the many other areas of critical pediatric research underway at Penn State College of Medicine.