Hello and welcome to living in the Lehigh Valley, where our focus is your health and wellness.

I'm your host, Brittany Sweeney.

Cancer treatments have come a long way in the past few decades, changing the way doctors treat patients.

In the past few years, stem cell transplants and cellular therapies have proven to be highly effective in those fighting the disease, especially blood cancers.

Now, those treatments are more accessible than ever.

Here in the Lehigh Valley.

He's a husband, a father, and a grandfather.

But over the past decade, Joe Killino Carlino of Lower Nazareth Township earned a new, unwanted title cancer patient.

And it started with a routine blood test that had an abnormality in it.

And, subsequently to that, I found out that, they diagnosed me with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Killino’s blood cancer started out mild, but over the years has mutate into more aggressive forms of the disease.

The non-Hodgkin's lymphoma has changed into what's known as CLL chronic lymphocytic lymphoma.

Killino seemed to be experiencing a pattern, and he received treatment and be in the clear for a few years before another sign of cancer would creep back in.

In October of 2024, he noticed swollen lymph nodes in his neck and called his doctor.

He was told it's time to try something new.

Because you've relapsed with these.

So we're going to have to do something else.

And it's called car T cell therapy.

It's one of the latest breakthroughs on fighting, leukemia.

The example that I usually give to our patients chemotherapy is, blanket bombing your enemy T cells the way we use it now called car T cells.

Chimeric antigen receptor T cells are like drones.

Just laser targeting tumor.

How was.

It?

Good.

How are you?

Doctor Usama Gergis is the director of stem cell transplant and cellular therapy at Jefferson Health and now Lehigh Valley Health Network.

Most people with leukemia and many blood cancers, their only hope for cure is bone marrow transplant.

Bone marrow transplant, stem cell transplant, hematopoietic stem cell transplant.

They all mean the same.

The oncologist was pivotal in bringing the innovative treatment to the Lehigh Valley.

The average age for a blood cancer patient is approximately 65 years old, so 65 years old, going to another place two hours away.

Each way is very cumbersome.

So bringing this treatment here will not only help the local population here, but it will bring in cutting edge medicine to a very deserving population.

He says it was stories like Killeen shows that inspired him to champion the cutting edge technology locally.

And lo and behold, because of Lehigh Valley joining with Jefferson, the doctor who's the head of the program at Jefferson came up interviewed means that we're going to do it here.

From there, it just started a whole new process.

People who live 90 minutes away from a treatment center, regardless of their wealth or race or gender, do worse than people who live within 30 minutes just because they're there are barriers to the access.

Here is the physician says cell therapy patients have low immune systems and require hands on expertise.

So LV now offers a brand new inpatient and outpatient space for cell therapy.

We manufacture their T lymphocytes with a Cd19 antibody.

This process takes two weeks.

Patients come back.

We give them chemotherapy for three days, two days rest and then infuse the car T cells in a syringe.

These car T cells, they're in the millions.

They go and they fight the cancer and they cause great, great results.

I learned that it's actually uses your own T cells and they're removed from your body, sent out, re-engineered, and come back.

Supercharged immunity.

Bringing the treatment to the Lehigh Valley will now help people like Killino fight cancer with the latest medical advancements.

According to the Health Network.

And make getting to and from the hospital easier for him and his family.

I feel very fortunate that it's happening here.

Now, at this time, the cellular therapies are only being offered at Cedar Crest location, but the long term goal is to expand the treatments to other LVN sites in an effort to bring cutting edge care closer to patients.

That'll do it for this edition of living in the Lehigh Valley.

I'm Brittany Sweeney, hoping you stay happy and healthy.