By Admin at 13 Oct 2017, 15:23 PM
Hematopoietic (blood-forming) cell transplants (also known as bone marrow transplants) are an important part of treatment for certain blood cancers (leukemia). Before this can occur, however, patients typically receive total body irradiation (TBI) to help kill cancer cells and suppress their immune system.
TBI is an intense procedure, however, one that not all patients can tolerate. Even in the best-case scenarios, side effects, such as mouth sores, low blood counts and nausea and vomiting, often occur.
When Carol Ramnarine was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a rare cancer of plasma cells (a type of white blood cell in bone marrow), she was offered the chance to take part in a clinical trial run by Dr. Jeffrey Wong at City of Hope cancer treatment and research center in southern California.
The trial includes TomoTherapy, which combines a more targeted form of radiation treatment called total marrow and lymphoid irradiation (TMLI) with scanning technologies such as CT/PET scans, allowing physicians to direct the radiation to specific organs and focus on the bone and bone marrow.
The trial is designed to treat 40 patients who are too sick to receive TBI. So far, the results are encouraging, and Ramnarine agrees. She describes her experience as a “Star Wars adventure” in which she received the treatment once a day for five days.
“The radiation sought out and destroyed the cancer cells in my bone marrow … TomoTherapy won,” she says, adding that she didn’t have the side effects that you typically hear about with radiation treatment — “I had a little dry itchy skin … but it was a painless procedure.” Ramnarine was the first TMLI patient treated worldwide; that was in 2005 — she’s still disease-free 12 years later.
TMLI shows significant promise for treating patients with blood cancer, even in those with advanced disease. It’s a feasible option for older patients and can be added to existing treatment regiments. Plus, technologies to deliver TMLI are now available worldwide, which means larger studies are likely to take place in the future, likely expanding its use and availability to patients.
Ramnarine’s experience with Dr. Wong’s TMLI clinical trial was life-changing, so much so that she decided to become a patient mentor and ambassador at City of Hope. “I wanted to let cancer patients know that they had options like TomoTherapy,” she says. Indeed, the study, which is ongoing, has the potential to improve treatment outcomes for patients with leukemia, enhancing the effectiveness of radiation treatment against the cancer while reducing side effects to healthy tissue.
Dr. Wong’s team anticipates that the Gateway-funded trial will lead to improved ways to image, treat and detect leukemia in the setting of bone marrow transplantation using total marrow irradiation.
Meet Carol Ramnarine's and hear her story below.
58
Current Gateway-funded clinical trials
150+
Clinical trials funded at leading institutions worldwide
$16.56
Funds one patient for one day at a Gateway-funded clinical trial
