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Source: Nashville Post
Author: Hannah Herner
Date: February 23, 2024
Locally based hospital giant HCA Healthcare announced Thursday that cancer treatment arm Sarah Cannon Cancer Institute has transitioned most of its CAR T-cell therapy patients to outpatient treatment.
CAR T-cell therapy is an immunotherapy that involves drawing a patient’s blood and genetically modifying it to recognize cancer cells when it is infused. Patients would typically have to stay in the hospital for a two-week monitoring period following the treatment.
With 75 percent of patients transitioning to the outpatient model, 20 percent were able to avoid hospitalization altogether through wearable monitoring devices, according to a press release.
“Patients heal better outside the hospital if they can get these complicated therapies, which carry risk for significant complications, safely in the outpatient setting,” said Dr. Navneet Majhail, physician in chief of blood cancers for Sarah Cannon Transplant & Cellular Therapy Network.