Hi, I'm Dr. Cindy Varga. I am one of the physicians at Atrium Health. I'm a myeloma doctor. I work at Levine Cancer Institute. And we're at Orlando at the ASH conference, and we're presenting exciting research. So as many of you know, CAR-T therapy is huge in multiple myeloma. It's absolutely changing the landscape of this disease. However, there are some toxicities that need to be addressed. And one of those toxicities are low blood counts. So some patients can have low blood counts just for a little bit and recover. But there are a subpopulation of patients that will have low blood counts, and it could be for weeks and months. And those are the patients that we're focusing on in this research. So what we did is we did this multi-institutional study. We had 18 institutes take part where we looked at patients who had these prolonged blood counts and we compared patients who got a stem cell boost. So those stem cells that were once collected for stem cell transplantation, some patients have some stem cells left behind. So those patients could get a stem cell boost. Other patients who might not have those stem cells stored could not get a stem cell boost. And we monitored the two groups of patients, those who got boosted, those who didn't. But all the patients had low blood counts from CAR-T. And what we found in this study was if you give a stem cell boost, and it could be even low doses of stem cell boost. So whatever you have left over in storage, if patients got those stem cells, they recovered their counts much faster. Probably within 30 days, 97.4% of patients that got a stem cell boost had full count recovery versus the other group that didn't get a stem cell boost did not reach that recovery. We don't have the data exactly when they recovered, but by day 90, there was a significant difference between the two groups. And that's what the research is showing today. It did not impact negatively on efficacy of the CAR-T. There were no complications from the stem cell boost. Nobody had any toxicities from the stem cell boost. So overall, it basically shows that the stem cell boost is feasible and safe in patients with prolonged cytopenia, so prolonged low blood counts after CAR-T. And that's what the research showed. If our videos have helped you in any way, and you're able to, please consider making a donation to help us continue this important work. Your gift will go three times as far when we reach $500,000 by the end of the year. Every contribution, big or small, makes a difference. And we're deeply grateful for your support.
HealthTree • January 2, 2026