Beginning in February 2025 the Chimeric Antigen Receptor Cell Therapy (CAR-T) Program started on the 10 South inpatient oncology unit. This treatment provides targeted therapy for patients with B-Cell Lymphoma and is the first Kaiser Permanente medical center to offer this groundbreaking therapy. This therapy re-engineers the patient’s own immune cells to fight their specific blood cancer, such as leukemia or lymphoma. The first patient was screened and identified as suitable for this treatment and brought to Oakland for CAR-T in June after 6 weeks of screening and preparation for infusion of the therapy.

Preparation for this launch of this program was years in the making with collaboration, dedication and innovation across multiple teams. leaders and clinicians from nursing, oncology, clinical operations, pharmacy and laboratory who came together to support and successfully launch the program. The oncology CNS, Deborah Bolton, MSN, RN, CNS-FNP, AOCNS, AOCNP was instrumental in training and preparing our nursing teams for this new change in practice.

Patients are typically admitted to the Oncology Unit for 7-10 days for their course of treatment and monitoring. The first group of patients successfully received administration of their chemotherapy with no readmissions and no visits to the emergency department following their infusions.

Being able to offer this advanced treatment option for patients represents the ability to support innovation and individualized therapy of modern patient care.