Home Health Bruce Springsteen’s wife and bandmate Patti Scialfa reveals cancer diagnosis

Bruce Springsteen’s wife and bandmate Patti Scialfa reveals cancer diagnosis

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Bruce Springsteen's wife and bandmate Patti Scialfa reveals cancer diagnosis

Patti Scialfa, Bruce Springsteen’s wife and bandmate, recently revealed that she was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer called multiple myeloma in 2018.

The 71-year-old has been singing and strumming with Bruce Springsteen as a backing vocalist and guitarist for more than four decades. Since joining the E-Street band in 1984, Scialfa helped create hits like “Dancing in the Dark” and “Born in the USA,” which shaped the music of the era and earned the group an induction into the 2014 Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. Although the E Street band is still active, Scialfa is noticeably absent from the lineup these days.

Scialfa has retired from touring since her myeloma diagnosis. She shares her story in the documentary Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Bandwhich premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. Multiple myeloma “affects my immune system, so I have to be careful about what I do and where I go,” she says explains in the film. “Every now and then I come to a show or two and I get to sing a few songs on stage, and that’s been a treat. That’s the new normal for me right now, and I’m fine with that.”

What is multiple myeloma?

Patti Scialfa’s cancer diagnosis has taken her off stage and imposed new limits on her body. But what exactly is multiple myeloma and how does it impact a person’s life?

Multiple myeloma is a blood cancer that affects plasma B cells, a type of white blood cell found in the bone marrow. Plasma cells usually protect the immune system by producing antibodies. However, for people with myeloma, these plasma cells no longer keep the body safe; they produce abnormal, harmful antibodies and multiply faster than the body can handle. They displace healthy red blood cells and damage multiple bones throughout the body, including the spine, pelvis and ribs – hence the name ‘multiple’ myeloma. The cancer cells can also spread beyond the bone marrow to other organs.

As Scialfa states in the documentary, multiple myeloma affects the immune system. It may not be noticeable at first because most people are initially asymptomatic. As the cancer increasingly throws the body out of balance, a wide range of symptoms may occur:

  • Frequent infections
  • Bone pain in the back, ribs and hips
  • Fatigue caused by anemia (low red blood cell count)
  • Weakness in the limbs
  • Extreme thirst and confusion
  • Headaches, weight loss, bruises and more

Most people only discover they have myeloma after symptoms persist for some time or after routine blood tests.

More than 35,000 people in the US this year she is diagnosed with multiple myeloma. It’s rare – less than 1% of men and women will develop this disease at some point in their lives – but definitely risk factors increasing this risk, such as being overweight, African-American descent, a family history of multiple myeloma and older age, with the average age at diagnosis being approximately 65 years old.

How do you treat multiple myeloma?

What treatments would someone like Scialfa undergo to treat his myeloma?

Options vary depending on how severe the disease is and whether they are candidates for an autologous stem cell transplant. A transplant can significantly benefit patients by renewing the bone marrow’s ability to produce healthy blood cells. For this procedure, a patient’s blood stem cells are collected and stored until after treatment to kill cancer cells. The cells are then returned to the bloodstream via an infusion.

Most patients – transplant candidates or not – start with a triple combination treatment that includes:

  1. Oral medications known as immunomodulators. These drugs stimulate the immune system to fight cancer.
  2. Injections that block a protein complex in cells called proteasomes. When this complex is blocked in cancer cells, proteins build up inside and cause cell death
  3. Steroids that make the other drugs work better and kill myeloma cells.

After patients undergo several rounds of this regimen, they move on to a less intensive treatment to prevent the cancer from returning.

If the patient is not eligible for a transplant or has more aggressive cancer, he or she may receive the triple treatment for a longer period of time or use additional cancer medications such as monoclonal antibodies or chemotherapy.

Relapse is a big problem. Once myeloma returns, previous treatments become less effective at keeping the cancer at bay. For these cases, it may be appropriate to consider a new immunotherapy called Chimeric antigen receptor T cell therapy or CAR T therapy.

CAR T therapy is an innovative cell therapy approved in 2022 and 2024 for the treatment of myeloma. This breakthrough takes a patient’s white blood cells, transforms them with gene editing, and reinserts them into the patient. The edited immune cells have an increased ability to detect and eradicate cancer cells and can provide long-lasting protection when other treatments no longer have an effect. According to the results of clinical studies 73% Unpleasant 98% of patients with relapsed myeloma respond to CAR T therapy, depending on the product – a beacon of hope for those with few options. Although the FDA is investigating whether CAR T therapies can rarely cause secondary cancer in patients, the benefits will likely outweigh this. possible adverse effect for most people.

The introduction of new treatments such as proteasome inhibitors, immunomodulatory drugs, monoclonal antibodies and CAR T therapy has improved the prognosis for myeloma. As shown in Figure 1, the five-year survival rate has increased over the years; Today, more myeloma patients than ever are living five or more years after receiving their diagnosis/initiation of treatment.

New innovations are on the way

Treatments for multiple myeloma will likely continue to improve, especially in the area of ​​CAR T therapy. Researchers are investigating ways to improve its effectiveness and minimize its side effects. For example, if CAR T cells target a different protein or target two proteins at once, the treatment can more thoroughly eliminate cancer cells.

Furthermore, several promising clinical trials suggest that CAR T therapy could one day be performed with donor cells or with similar mRNA technology contained in the COVID-19 vaccines. If both options prove safe and effective, they could reduce the most expensive and time-consuming step of the CAR T manufacturing process: gene editing for individual batches of blood cells.

Takeaways

Patti Scialfa’s diagnosis has brought new attention to multiple myeloma, a rare and challenging blood cancer. While this disease can significantly impact a patient’s quality of life, the landscape of treatment options is evolving. Breakthrough treatments like CAR T therapy are paving the way for new possibilities, dramatically improving outcomes and giving patients a fighting chance.

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