Duke Health

Cellular therapies are showing tremendous promise for certain cancers previously thought to be incurable. While there are several types of cell therapies, they all remove and alter a patient’s cells, then infuse them back into the body to attack and kill cancer cells.

As part of our ongoing Conversations in Cancer video series, Diane Reedy-Lagunes, MD, a medical oncologist at Duke Health, talks to Chenyu Lin, MD, a hematologist-oncologist at Duke, who explains how they work and what the future may hold.

Duke Health experts discuss the use of cell therapy in fighting cancer.

The National Kidney Registry’s voucher program gives people in need of a kidney more ways to receive one and more incentive for people to donate. For Greensboro resident Kimberly Cable, who used the voucher program for her kidney transplant at Duke, it was lifesaving.

Sophia Ramirez’s family was told nothing more could be done after two stem cell transplants performed at a hospital near their South Carolina home failed to cure the toddler’s aggressive leukemia. Then her family brought her to Duke Health, where Sophia received a therapy only available through a clinical trial, followed by a third, successful stem cell transplant. Today, the five-year-old is back home, recovering well, and enjoying life with her family. “It was a miracle,” her mother said. “If not for Duke, Sophia wouldn't be here any longer.”