News & Events
Great turn out at our Blood Cancer Information Evening
BCNI held a "Blood Cancer Information Evening" on Monday 6th November. This event was free and open to patients, their families and members of the public with an interest in learning more about blood cancers.
We had a great turn out for the event which included patients, their families as well as medical and research staff and students and the venue was full to capacity!
Prof Michael O'Dwyer started off the evening with an overview of the different types of blood cancers and current treatments and then he described the exciting developments taking place in immunotherapy for blood cancers. In particular he explained about CAR-T therapy which involves engineering patients own immune cells to treat their blood cancer. This is a rapidly emerging immunotherapy approach and dramatic progress has been seen lately pushing the boundaries of what many people thought was possible and it holds great promise for the future.
Mary Coyne, a patient with Multiple Myeloma then described her experience of having a blood cancer and the effect it had on her and her family. Mary is currently a participant in a BCNI Phase 1 clinical trial and she shared her experience of being on a clinical trial with the audience. Mary's positive attitude and willingness to tell her story was greatly appreciated and we wish her and her family all the best.
Dr Grainne Gannon the BCNI Clinical Trials Coordinator spoke about the importance of clinical trials and this was followed up by Research Nurse Jessica Walsh who explained what it means to be a participant on a clinical trial and the pros and cons for patients.
Finally Dr Sandra Healy finished up the evening by explaining what a blood cancer biobank and registry are and why we need them.
Tea/coffee, a tour of the Clinical Research Facility and a chance to speak to the BCNI staff and were on offer after the talks and all-in-all it was a very successful information evening.
