Kansas City Business Journal: Making Cancer Personal. Individualized therapies are improving outcomes for patients
By Grace Mayer
Dave Frantze talks in a raspy voice, a result of recurring sinus infections. But after battling cancer for nearly a decade, he’ll take a sinus infection any day.
“I will have a cold for the rest of my life to not have multiple myeloma. It’s a great trade-off,” Frantze said, smiling.
Frantze, 69, in many ways is healthier than he’s been in years, after a blood cancer diagnosis in 2017 upended his life.
The Stinson LLP development attorney who has, in legal and incentive matters, spoken up for projects to restore Union Station, build the Kansas City Power & Light District and T-Mobile Center, and pass a $1.7 billion tax increment financing plan for Cerner Corp.’s Innovations Campus, carries the wear of six years battling multiple myeloma. Frantze is a part of the less than 1% of people in the U.S. who develop this deadly blood cancer, which affects the bone marrow, the source of blood-producing cells.
He has the voice of someone who —after a bone marrow transplant, rounds of chemotherapy and a landmark immunotherapy — achieved complete remission in late 2022.
A treatment offered at The University of Kansas Health System improved his odds of survival. CAR T-cell therapy is an immunotherapy that treats rare blood cancers — and someday could treat more common types of solid-tumor cancers.
This therapy, along with advances in genomic testing, is one of several that are leading to highly personalized treatment plans and improving outcomes for patients with cancer and rare diseases. And this work is being done at some of Kansas City’s top health care institutions, including The University of Kansas Cancer Center, Saint Luke’s Health System and Children’s Mercy Kansas City.
Children’s Mercy genetic testing
Genetic testing today can yield personalized treatments for adults with rare diseases or cancer. But those tests don’t always translate perfectly to children, who aren’t always eligible for certain medications cleared for adults.
That’s one of the biggest obstacles for pediatric hospitals seeking treatment plans for patients, said Dr. Joseph Alaimo, director of the clinical molecular genetics laboratory at Children’s Mercy Kansas City.
In October, Children’s Mercy became the first pediatric hospital in Missouri to offer in-house pharmacogenetic (PGx) testing. Its Kiddose PGx test can be used to personalize treatments for children with rare diseases, developmental and behavioral health issues, requiring transplants or with chronic illnesses.
“Now we’re able to strategically design something in-house that targets variants that are important for medications [and] solely for pediatrics and adolescents,” Alaimo said.
Read the full article via The Kansas City Business Journal