Outpatient cancer therapy enables at-home healing
Treatment program uses new technology and trained outpatient clinical teams to reduce the time patients spend in the hospital.
DALLAS – Bo Li, a cancer patient fighting non-Hodgkin lymphoma since 2020, smiles from her treatment room at Medical City Dallas because she can go home every afternoon during her 14-day treatment plan. That’s because of the hospital’s new outpatient CAR T-cell therapy program.
“I’m blessed to be able to go home and be in the comfort of my own house and surrounded by family and friends every night,” Li says. “It’s keeping me strong and helps keep my energy level high but also rest comfortably if I need to.”
For decades, standard cancer care was surgery, chemotherapy and radiation. In the last 20 years, targeted treatments, like Chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy (CAR T-cell therapy), have been used to kill cancer cells by attacking molecular changes in the cells.
CAR T-cell therapy uses the patient’s immune system to recognize and fight cancer. During the CAR T-cell treatment process, T-cells are drawn from a patient’s blood and modified to recognize cancer cells when reinfused. Because these patients require intensive, specialized care, they are closely monitored for any complications and have historically required inpatient hospitalization for about two to three weeks after infusion. During that time, they receive intravenous fluids, electrolytes and medications to treat side effects of the therapy and prevent infections.
The program at Medical City Dallas also uses new technology for at-home patient monitoring and trained outpatient clinical teams, including nurses, clinical pharmacists, social workers and case managers, to help reduce the time patients spend in the hospital.
“CAR T-cell therapies are the leading-edge treatment for patients with aggressive lymphomas, acute lymphoblastic leukemia and multiple myeloma,” says Jay deVenny, CEO of Medical City Dallas. “To be able to provide it in an outpatient setting is part of our commitment to expert, compassionate care that helps create healthier tomorrows for these cancer patients.”
Not all patients are candidates for the new outpatient treatments, but those who are could experience the benefits of the new therapy. Some CAR T-cell treatments have kept cancer in remission for years, according to the National Cancer Institute.
Li recently underwent radiation to reduce tumors caused by her lymphoma. The CAR T-cell therapy, given intravenously, is now aimed at effectively treating those tumors and any remaining cancer cells in her body.