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Blood Cancer Awareness - What You Need to Know Now

How many people are affected by blood cancers?

1.5 million individuals in the United States are either living with, or in remission from, blood cancers.1

 

What are types of blood cancer?

Leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma are considered the primary types of blood cancers which impact the body’s blood cells.2 

Other rare types of blood cancers, such as polycythemia vera – a disease for which Protagonist is working to address - can sometimes progress into cancers like leukemia.

 

Where does blood cancer originate from?

Bone cancers start in the bone marrow, the source of blood production; patients with blood cancer will typically have too many white blood cells in their bone marrow, as the old white blood cells are not replaced with new ones.3

By contrast, in patients with polycythemia vera, too many red blood cells are produced; the high red blood cell count will generally lead to slowed blood flow and poor oxygenation.4 This poses a significant risk of blood clots, stroke, heart attacks, and organ and tissue damage.5

 

What is the cause of blood cancers?

According to the Cleveland Clinic, although research indicates that blood cancers are caused by DNA mutations, there is evidence to suggest that various genetic and environmental factors may play a role in blood cancer.6

 

What are reported signs and symptoms of patients with blood cancer?

Patients with blood cancer often report signs and symptoms that include fever and chills, unexplained weight loss, weakness, ongoing fatigue, swollen lymph nodes, bruising, excessive night sweats, and bone pain.7 Polycythemia vera patients tend to report signs and symptoms like itchiness, numbness, tingling, bleeding, joint swelling, and trouble with breathing when lying down.8

 

How are patients diagnosed?

When diagnosing a patient, the patient’s doctor will typically collect a medical history, complete a physical examination, and request blood work and various imaging tests.9 They typically measure hematocrit – the proportion of red blood cells in your blood. Many physicians now believe an appropriate hematocrit level is below 45.

  

What treatment options exist?

Several treatment options exist for blood cancers, and many more are being researched. In the treatment of polycythemia vera, Protagonist Therapeutics is developing rusfertide, an investigational drug currently in Phase 3 clinical studies. The current standard of care is phlebotomy, a blood draw procedure that has a number of challenges for patients.

1 https://www.lls.org/blood-cancer-awareness#:~:text=September%20is%20Blood%20Cancer%20Awareness,in%20remission%20from%20blood%20cancers.

2 https://bloodcancer.org.uk/understanding-blood-cancer/#:~:text=Blood%20cancer%20is%20a%20type,the%20DNA%20within%20blood%20cells.

3 https://www.yalemedicine.org/conditions/blood-cancers

4

5 USAToday ad

6 https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/22883-blood-cancer#symptoms-and-causes

7 https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/leukemia/symptoms-causes/syc-20374373

8 https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/polycythemia-vera/symptoms-causes/syc-20355850#:~:text=Polycythemia%20vera%20(pol%2De%2D,Polycythemia%20vera%20is%20rare.

9 https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/22883-blood-cancer#symptoms-and-causes

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Health Equity: Improving Access to Medicines, Ensuring Diverse Representation

Spotlight, Arturo Molina, MD, Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Molina, how are you helping to advance access to medicines?

At Protagonist, we work hard to meet the needs of the patient communities who are relying on us to innovate new and better medicines. Part of our commitment to them includes working to advance our medicines through clinical studies as quickly as possible and ensuring patients can access investigational therapies outside of our clinical trials, which has allowed some patients in critical need to access our therapies for several additional years after trials conclude.

We’re seeing a greater push for better representation in therapeutic innovation across the industry. How is Protagonist supporting diverse and equitable discovery and development?

Protagonist actively works to ensure we have strong patient representation in our clinical studies. We actively seek patients from across urban, suburban, and rural locations, from varying age groups and from among diverse backgrounds to ensure equitable patient representation in our study data.

We’re particularly concerned aging populations are left out of clinical studies, and we’re currently working to recruit older patients into our trials.