Founded in 1898 and operating from a 29-acre campus on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus in New York, Roswell Park helps set international standards in cancer care through its role as a founding member of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network.

If you are or think you may be at high risk for hereditary cancer syndromes based on your personal or family histories of cancer, their Genetic Screening team can help. The genetic counsellors offer patients and their families a comprehensive, personalised cancer risk evaluation in a confidential setting. If cancer runs in your family, there may be an inherited factor (a gene change) that increases your risk of developing cancer in your lifetime.

Photodynamic therapy (PDT) was developed at Roswell Park. The PDT Center at Roswell Park is a worldwide leader in its use for treating many types of cancer. The treatment involves the administration of a non-toxic drug that settles in tumour cells, followed by the application of laser light to the tumour, thereby activating the drug and killing the cancer. At Roswell Park, it is used to treat various types of cancer, including cancers of the skin, lung, breast, gynaecological cancers, oesophagus, pleura and head and neck.

The Cancer Coach Programme connects Roswell Park patients with cancer survivors who know firsthand how a cancer diagnosis changes your life. Cancer Coaches are trained Roswell Park volunteers who provide comfort and practical information for patients. While Cancer Coaches can provide valuable information about their own personal experiences and supportive services available at Roswell Park, they do not provide medical advice. At no cost to you, a programme coordinator will match you with a Cancer Coach who has coped with a similar diagnosis (cancer type, stage, etc.) They also look for other potential commonalities that coach and patient may have, including shared interests, cultural/religious backgrounds and basic demographic information.

Roswell Park offers the Integrative Medicine programme to pediatric and adolescent patients in the inpatient and outpatient clinics with a referral from their provider. Young adult and adult patients are able to receive acupuncture through the Survivorship and Supportive Care Center or by referral from their primary oncologist. Reiki is available for young adults and adults in the Survivorship and Supportive Care Center.

For adults, the Wellness programmes at Roswell Park aim to improve the wellbeing and overall quality of life. They have specific programmes for patients, survivors, caregivers and volunteers.

Roswell Park’s board-certified dietitians are part of your healthcare team and can help you make the best food choices to optimise your health. Their dietitians are uniquely experienced in working with cancer patients to improve your nutrition before, during and after treatment. Clinical nutrition, also referred to as medical nutrition therapy (MNT) is a therapeutic approach to treating medical conditions and their associated symptoms through a tailoured diet developed and monitored by a medical doctor physician or registered dietitian nutritionist (RDN).

A practitioner will discuss various options to determine which integrative techniques may best be suited to you. Treatment sessions generally take 10-30 minutes and include one or more of the following:

Acupuncture and acupressure
Magnet therapy
Shonishin
Massage therapy
Reiki
Mindfulness and meditation
Movement/exercise through Qi Gong