1.5 million individuals in the United States are either living with, or in remission from, blood cancers.1
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.
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
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
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
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.
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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Spotlight, Arturo Molina, MD, Chief Medical Officer
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.
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.
Spotlight: Carena Spivey, Head of HR
We view our diverse and welcoming corporate culture as being critical to our long-term success – It’s essential to the way we innovate. And we regularly track and report our progress, because we believe that what doesn’t get measured doesn’t get done.
Today:
- 65% of employees are members of underrepresented ethnic communities
- 51% are women
- nearly 50% of our Board identifies as a member of an underserved community or as female
We create the conditions for our employees to thrive, facilitating their learning and growth through a richly supportive workplace setting.
Part of that is creating a speak-up culture; we have cultivated an environment where every voice is heard, and we encourage the expression of different points of view in decision-making processes. At every turn, we encourage deep listening, thoughtful consideration, and open-mindedness that allows for decisions to be changed or refined in step with new data. By embracing our team members’ differences, we create wins for our organization and for patients.