Physicians with M Health Fairview Cancer Care make up an internationally-recognized team known for its innovative and compassionate care for patients with blood cancers such as lymphoma. Many treatments that are now available to patients around the world were pioneered at our National Cancer Institute-designated research center: Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota.

M Health Fairview Cancer Care physicians have been a world leader in treating blood cancers, like lymphoma, with blood and marrow transplant (BMT) since 1968, when the world’s first successful BMT was completed here.

We continue to perform leading-edge research, including the use of cellular therapy to infuse immune cells to destroy cancer cells or motivate the body’s own “natural killer” cells to destroy cancer cells, and the use of toxin-immunotherapy to treat leukemia and lymphoma. In this type of therapy, the patient is given an antibody drug with toxin specifically targeting the cancer cells.

Recently, researchers at Masonic Cancer Center, University of Minnesota have had success with an early stage clinical trial for patients with B- cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma. This promising new immunotoxin therapy, using the diphtheria bacteria, targets cancer cells while limiting exposure to surrounding healthy cells.

This continued research, conducted in collaboration with scientists at the Masonic Cancer Center, benefits patients who have failed standard therapies.