Phyllis McKiernan on Blood and Marrow Transplants and Targeted Therapies

Phyllis McKiernan, MSN, APN, OCN, nurse practitioner, John Theurer Cancer Center at Hackensack University Medical Center, discusses blood and marrow transplantation and treating chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) with targeted therapies.

McKiernan says that many advances have been made in blood and marrow transplantation over the past 20 years and patients now can survive for a long time following a transplant.

Targeted therapy is one advancement that has been made in treating blood cancers, McKiernan says. These therapies target molecular mutations that are particular to a cancer and have less of an effect on normal cells.