Advice for Being Prepared As a Bispecific Antibody Therapy Care Partner
When a loved one is undergoing bispecific antibody therapy, how can a care partner prepare? Tiffany Richards, a myeloma nurse practitioner, provides key advice for care partners, including important questions that they should ask the healthcare team.
Tiffany Richards, PhD, APRN-BC, AOCNP is a Nurse Practitioner in the department of Lymphoma/Myeloma at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.
See More from The Care Partner Toolkit: Bispecific Antibodies
Related Resources:
Proactive Steps for Supporting Your Loved One Through Bispecific Antibody Therapy |
What Myeloma Care Partners Should Know About Bispecific Antibody Side Effects |
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Transcript:
Katherine Banwell:
When meeting with a patient and their care partner for the first time, what three key pieces of advice would you share with them?
Tiffany Richards:
So, one is I would make sure that you understand the regimen; so, what days you’re going to be dosed, what day you’re going to go in the hospital, approximately what day you might be discharged, knowing that that discharge date can vary depending on how you’re doing with tolerating the therapy. I would also make sure that you understand what prophylactic medications you need to be on.
So, oftentimes we’re putting you on an antiviral. We’re putting you on something to prevent a certain kind of pneumonia called PJP. And then, we also may put you on something to help you boost up your antibodies. So, oftentimes patients with myeloma, they’re low on their normal IgG antibodies just because we’re depleting all of these plasma cells in the bone marrow and so you’re not producing enough of these other antibodies. And so, we may have to put you on IVIG once a month.
And so, making sure that you understand what it is that you all need to be taking, and then also making sure that you’re asking the questions as far as “How often do I have to come back?”
“Do I have to get it all at an academic center or is it the opportunity to get it done locally?” I think that’s really important question because some local community providers, they’re willing to do the subsequent cycles of the bispecific. They may just not want to do that first cycle. And so, asking the question, “Can I get my subsequent cycles locally?” because to travel long distances, particularly depending on where you live geographically, it may be difficult to go back and forth to an academic center.
Katherine Banwell:
Is there anything you’d like to add about caring for someone who is being treated with bispecific antibody therapy?
Tiffany Richards:
Yeah. I think knowing as much as you can about how the drugs work is really important, and then also what you can do to help manage and mitigate some of the side effects is important. And then, making sure that you understand the schedule, and as well as the schedule for the supportive medications is also really important. When we transition patients from an academic center to community, we usually have a touchpoint with that community provider. We provide instructions.
So, I think it would good to ask the academic center for a copy of the letter for the communication that’s being given, so that everybody is on that same page, can be really, really helpful.
