New Therapies for Adults and Children With Blood Cancers Hold Promise

Blood cancer treatment is looking far different than it did years ago, and as a result, patients are surviving longer — and often with fewer side effects.

In this special issue of CURE®, we’re honing in on some of the most exciting updates in the treatment of patients with mantle cell lymphoma, including a new chimeric antigen receptor (CAR)-T cell therapy that was approved just a few months ago. The new therapy, which involves programming a patients’ own cells to fight cancer, is helping patients with the dis- ease live longer, better lives. However, CAR-T cell therapy is not without downsides.

For many, the treatment can be extraordinarily expensive. Another feature story in this issue discusses the hefty price tag of CAR-T cell therapy, as well as financial assistance programs that help patients pay for this treatment.

Although the past decade has brought breakthroughs in treatment for adult blood cancers, advances for pediatric blood cancers seemed few and far between. That, however, is changing. Researchers, nonprofit organizations and patients are collaborating to test new therapies for children to bring more options to young patients.

Our third feature story delves into the coming of age for pediatric blood cancer research and highlights a few families who have benefitted from it.

No cancer breakthrough is possible without clinical trials. But many patients are hesitant to participate because they fear they’ll be treated with an ineffective agent or, worse, a placebo. Dr. Susan M. O’Brien, a hematology oncologist at UCI Health in Orange, California, who is actively involved in clinical trials, discusses these misconceptions and the potential benefits of enrolling.

Also in this issue: Mary DeRome of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation explains a program that helps patients get the right team, the right tests and the right treatment, including the right clinical trials.

I hope you find this special issue of CURE® both useful and enlightening.