High-Risk and Complex Solid Tumor Team

From first visit to follow-up, our multidisciplinary experts will work as a team — and with you — to provide seamless care. Our goal is to give every patient the best chance of a long and healthy life.

Solid tumors are cancerous lumps of tissue that can affect any area of the body. A solid tumor may be “high risk” if:

• The location or the type of tumor makes it more challenging to treat.
• The type of cancer is rare.
• The treatment plan requires complex surgery, radiation therapy or stem cell transplant.
• The tumor does not go into remission quickly with treatment (refractory).
• The tumor comes back after treatment (relapsed or recurrent). Clinical trials of novel therapies may be the best option in those cases.

Your family can consult us about the best treatment options for your specific tumor. Our High-Risk and Complex Solid Tumor Team will do a detailed review of the medical records you provide, checking that all needed diagnostic tests have been done. We consider all options — including medical, surgical, radiation and clinical trials — and recommend the best treatment.

If you would like a second opinion, contact the Cancer and Blood Disorders Center at 206-987-2106 or by email at [email protected].

• A multidisciplinary team with training and expertise in your specific type of tumor will provide your care, led by a pediatric oncologist.
• Your care team may include pediatric subspecialty surgeons (surgical oncologists, orthopedic surgeons, transplant surgeons, otolaryngologists, gynecologists, neurosurgeons, cardiac surgeons or urologists); radiation oncologists; pathologists; radiologists; and stem cell transplant doctors.
• Our multidisciplinary Bone Tumor and Sarcoma team offers limb-sparing reconstructive surgeries such as rotationplasty. Our team includes physical therapists who focus on rehabilitation after large surgeries.
• Seattle Children’s Cancer Predisposition Clinic cares for children who are born with a gene change (mutation) that increases their chances of developing cancer in childhood. Early assessment and regular monitoring may help us find and treat tumors early, leading to better outcomes.
• Our Adolescent and Young Adult Cancer Program focuses on the needs of patients who are in their teen years or nearing adulthood. An important part of planning for life after cancer is protecting the ability to have biological children (fertility preservation).
• As needed, we coordinate with Seattle Children’s specialists in rehabilitation medicine, physical therapy, occupational therapy, nutrition and other fields.
• After treatment ends, our Cancer Survivor Program helps keep you healthy over the long term.

• Our state-of-the-art treatments include targeted therapies, immunotherapies, stem cell transplants, complex surgeries, radiation therapies, chemotherapies and other novel therapies offered in clinical trials.
• For those who need advanced radiation therapy options, we offer treatment at the only proton therapy center in the Northwest.
• Seattle Children’s is the only hospital in the Pacific Northwest and 1 of the few centers in the United States that offer I-131-MIBG therapy for children.
• Some children and young adults with high-risk solid tumors need very high doses of chemotherapy medicines and a stem cell transplant to support recovery of the body’s systems for making blood and immune cells. Our team is with your family each step of the way — preparing for transplant, doing the transplant here at Seattle Children’s and providing care during recovery. We work closely with Fred Hutch, one of the largest transplant centers in the world.

• We are key players in national research groups like the Children’s Oncology Group (COG), Sarcoma Alliance for Research through Collaboration (SARC), New Approaches to Neuroblastoma Therapy (NANT) and National Pediatric Cancer Foundation Sunshine Project.
• Our phase 1 clinical trials include studies of CAR T-cell immunotherapy developed here at Seattle Children’s. This approach reprograms the body’s infection-fighting T cells to find and destroy cancer cells.
• We take part in early phase (Phase 1 or 2) clinical trials of treatments developed by biotechnology companies and are one of the core institutions in the COG pediatric early phase clinical trial network (PEPCTN).
• Your doctor will talk with you about any new treatment options that might help. Then you can decide about taking part in a research study. It’s your choice.
• Learn more about cancer research and clinical trials at Seattle Children’s.
• Learn about participating in clinical trials at Seattle Children’s.