New treatment is now available for patients with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma and Multiple Myeloma

MozobilTM (plerixafor), a new treatment for the mobilization of stem cells in patients with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (NHL) and multiple myeloma (MM), is now available in Canada. MozobilTM is designed to mobilize hematopoietic stem cells from the bone marrow into the bloodstream where they can be collected, making it more likely for patients with certain types of cancer to proceed to transplant. Currently, before a transplant takes place, patients receive growth factors and possibly chemotherapy to mobilize hematopoietic stem cells into the bloodstream, allowing them to be collected. A minimum number of 2 million stem cells per kilogram of body weight must be collected; for many patients this process can take three of four hours over multiple days to complete and ~15 to 20% of patients fail to mobilize enough cells. This new treatment option enhances the probability of a successful stem cell collection and subsequent transplant provides hope for those patients who otherwise would not have had this option.