At SparkCures, our goal is to help our patients find and understand their potential clinical trial options. We are constantly working to improve our matching technology so that we can provide you with the most accurate results. One of the ways we achieve this is by allowing you to input your most recent lab values into your profile to help refine your results.

Historically, we have not included Platelets and Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC)into our system because the values can change so rapidly for patients. In conversations with our hospital and pharmaceutical partners, we have found that those two lab values can often be the deciding factor on whether a patient is able to join a particular trial. Given this feedback, we are excited to announce that as part of our newest update, you now have the ability to enter these crucial values into your profile.

We want to share with you why those numbers can be so important:

Platelets are a type of cell found in the blood that clump together in large numbers to form clots, which is how our body stops any bleeding it may experience.

Absolute Neutrophil Count (ANC) is a measurement of the number of neutrophils present in your blood. Neutrophils are a type of white blood cell that oftentimes leads our immune response to an infection. They have the ability to ingest the invading microorganism and release enzymes that can kill it. If your ANC is low, it can greatly affect your bodies ability to fight infections. A low ANC (neutropenia), is unfortunately a common side effect of many cancer treatments, and is monitored closely by your doctors.

Plans for future updates to our technology include allowing patients to input previous exposures to experimental myeloma treatments such as Venetoclax, Selinexor, CD-38 therapies, BCMA therapies, and CAR-T cells. Once patients have received these treatments, even in a clinical trial setting, they can greatly change the landscape of future trial options that are available to them.

At SparkCures, we are committed to empowering myeloma patients with knowledge to make the right treatment decisions for themselves, whether that plan includes a clinical trial or not. If you already have an account, you can update your profile with your latest labs here. To create your free account, visit SparkCures.com/signup, or call us at (888) 828-2206 and we would be happy to help you.