Greater Victoria nurses who care for those who are seriously ill and those approaching the end of their lives will be among the first medical teams in B.C. to start working with a new, possibly revolutionary cancer treatment.
The oncology and palliative care teams at Royal Jubilee Hospital are now working with bispecific T-cell engagers, new drugs that show "great promise" in treating a range of cancers, including blood cancers like lymphoma.
香蕉视频直播淚t's an antibody treatment that simultaneously binds to a cancer cell and a T-cell,香蕉视频直播� said Dr. Ashley Freeman, a medical oncologist and malignant hematology lead at BC Cancer, in a news release. 香蕉视频直播淎nd the idea is that the T-cell kills the cancer cell.香蕉视频直播�
Island Health nurse Erica Kroeger explained that the bispecific medication uses the body's own immune system to fight cancer in which the T-cell recognizes the cancer cell as foreign, and activates an immune response to kill the cancer cells.
While chemotherapy uses a "shotgun approach" by killing all rapidly dividing cells 香蕉视频直播� both good and bad 香蕉视频直播� bispecific immunotherapy is more targeted on cancer cells themselves.
香蕉视频直播淲hat it香蕉视频直播檚 doing is harnessing your immune system香蕉视频直播檚 ability to target those bad cells 香蕉视频直播� those cancer cells 香蕉视频直播� and kill them off,香蕉视频直播� Kroeger noted in the release.
According to Freeman, BC Cancer chose RJH 香蕉视频直播� which is the first hospital outside of Vancouver to offer the treatment 香蕉视频直播� to host bispecifics because it's the main cancer therapy treatment hospital on Vancouver Island, and the hospital has an excellent record of supporting cancer therapy.
香蕉视频直播淚t was great working with RJH because they recognized the value in this exciting new class of cancer therapy and worked quickly to implement it. As a result, we were the first centre outside of Vancouver to be using these medications in the province. Their support and partnership were the most important thing in getting this up and running,香蕉视频直播� noted Freeman in the release.
Though it's still the early days of bispecific medication, nurses say they have high hopes for the future.
香蕉视频直播淓ven 10 years ago when I started, it was mostly just chemotherapy. Immunotherapy was this thing that was coming out, and now we have these bispecifics and it's just going to snowball,香蕉视频直播� said Mackenzie Gavidia-Alas, manager of the RJH cancer care program.
