MedSupport: Helping families overcome barriers to kids' chemotherapy medicines
Official title: MedSupport: A Novel Multilevel Intervention to Identify and Address Barriers to Pediatric Medication
Funded at Roswell Park Cancer Institute Corp · NIH-11508243 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This program offers extra support to parents of children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia to help them give home chemotherapy medicines more reliably.
Quick facts
| Grant type | R01 grant |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Roswell Park Cancer Institute Corp NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Buffalo, United States) |
| Project start | April 1, 2024 |
| Project end | March 31, 2029 |
| Funding year | 2026 |
| Award (this year) | $31,622 |
| NIH project number | 3R01CA283501-03S1 |
| Project ID | NIH-11508243 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
Ideal candidates are families of children (roughly birth to 11 years) with acute lymphoblastic leukemia who are taking home-based chemotherapy and are willing to use electronic monitoring and provide biospecimens.
✕Less likely to help
Children who are not on home-based chemotherapy, have a different cancer type, or families unwilling to use monitoring devices or give samples are unlikely to benefit from this program.
What this research studies
If your family joins, you will be randomly assigned to receive the MedSupport program or standard education, and the study will follow about 150 families across eight pediatric cancer centers. MedSupport is a multilevel, theory-based program designed to identify the specific reasons medicines are missed and provide tailored help to address them. The study uses electronic medication monitoring caps and blood or other metabolite tests to measure how often medicines are actually taken. The trial runs alongside a therapeutic pediatric cancer trial and compares adherence and the proposed mechanisms between the groups.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If effective, MedSupport could help families reduce missed chemo doses and lower the chance of treatment complications or relapse for children with ALL.
How similar studies have gone: Previous research shows medication nonadherence is common and supportive interventions can help, but combining electronic monitoring with drug-metabolite biomarkers in this pediatric ALL setting is relatively new.
Where this research is happening
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Roswell Park Cancer Institute Corp
Buffalo, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Bouchard, Elizabeth — Roswell Park Cancer Institute Corp
- Study coordinator: Bouchard, Elizabeth
About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.