A rare disease diagnosis comes with many questions, and that’s especially true when treatment decisions need to be made quickly.
That’s why Jazz Pharmaceuticals launched Find the Right Fit, focused on two rare blood cancer types—myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and secondary acute myeloid leukemia (sAML).
Created in partnership with the Cancer Support Community and Myelodysplastic Syndromes Foundation, the campaign centers on a website with patient stories, video tutorials, articles and links to more resources. Social media and public relations efforts will direct people to the site.
“One of the great things for AML patients is there has been a busy and productive time in the development of new treatments for AML, broadly including but not limited to sAML," said Jazz Chairman and CEO Bruce Cozadd. Before that, "it had been almost a decade with little or no new treatment options available,”
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While the Right Fit campaign is unbranded, Jazz’s Vyxeos is one of those new treatments. It was approved in 2017 to treat the two common types of sAML— therapy-related AML and AML with myelodysplasia-related changes.
And Cozadd is correct about the flood of treatments in AML. In just the the past few years, Astellas' Xospata, Pfizer's Daurismo, Novartis' Rydapt and AbbVie and Roche's Venclexta have joined the market with AML treatments for a variety of specific mutations.
More treatment options, however, can also mean more confusion for patients and caregivers
“The great news is more available therapies, but that also adds a little bit that confusion of 'how do I understand what’s right for me, what questions should I be asking and how do I get answers?' So it’s a good time to come out with additional support materials,” Cozadd said.
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The patient stories on the Right Fit website illustrate that with descriptions of the multiple treatments and additional issues that marked their journeys with AML.
Pete, for instance, talks about the many twists, turns and therapies he has experienced with AML since 2012, beginning with his MDS diagnosis. He has since gone through two stem cell transplants, four leukemic tumors and many chemotherapy and radiation treatments.
“I would like to have had a ‘Leukemia for Dummies’ book or video early on in my journey to dig into what to look for, what to expect and all the possibilities one might experience,” he said.