An Essential CAR T-Cell Therapy Team Member | The Care Partner
An Essential CAR T-Cell Therapy Team Member | The Care Partner from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.
Nurse practitioner Daniel Verina highlights the crucial role that care partners play during the CAR T-cell therapy process, offering advice on what they should expect throughout the journey, and emphasizing the importance of a support system and resources for patients and their care partners.
Daniel Verina is a nurse practitioner at the Center of Excellence for Multiple Myeloma at Mount Sinai Tisch Cancer Center in New York City.
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Transcript:
Katherine Banwell:
Daniel, the care partner is a vital team member in the CAR T process. Can you explain the role of a care partner?
Daniel Verina:
Absolutely. I think one of the key ingredients, I think, in cancer care across the board is the caregiver. I think many times it’s forgotten because we’re very focused on the patient’s needs. But entirely, it’s not just the patient who has the cancer, it’s the caregiver who actually has the cancer or bears some of the burden. So, I think it’s important to always have them involved in all of the roles and each step that the patient goes through, and also try to provide them support that they may need that’s extra, not that the patient gets.
Katherine Banwell:
Yeah. As a nurse practitioner, Daniel, you educate care partners about the CAR T-cell process. What are three key pieces of advice you share with care partners for patients who are considering CAR T-cell therapy?
Daniel Verina:
There’s a few. So big three key points to this is that it’s a journey. One of the things, it’s not just a quick we’re going to do this in a month and then we’ll be moving on. It’s going to be for a couple of months or a few years that we may be together during this CAR T experience, one.
There’s going to be also many trips to your facility, your institution, your cancer center that are required to even getting part of the CAR T, working up for the CAR T before even having the cells manufactured and given back to them. And I think also having an extra support for them, so the caregiver also has to have support outside of them. So, if they’re not able to make a meeting or come to an appointment, they should have a backup or somebody even just to talk to outside of just the cancer center.
Katherine Banwell:
For care partners, what support and resources do you recommend for their mental and physical well-being when caring for a loved one who’s undergoing CAR T?
Daniel Verina:
Absolutely. I think you could even broad span that to all of cancer care itself, but especially with CAR T. There’s many resources out there that are available. So, the International Myeloma
