Upfront Transplants in Patients With Mantle Cell Lymphoma

I want to touch on health literacy and disparities for a moment. I have some younger patients who are Latin or Black with uncontrolled hypertension or diabetes, even at a young age, and do not realize that I can treat their cancer into remission, but if their blood glucose is in the 500 range, they could die from their diabetes. So talking with patients about their overall health is important. Survivorship issues are important, especially if patients are diagnosed at a young age. We have known for a long time that chemotherapy can create cardiac events, arrhythmias, and heart disease. Therefore, I always tell patients with metabolic syndrome to try to exercise and eat healthy. Patients should get an electrocardiogram and see an internist at least once a year to make sure their cholesterol is well controlled. I think now we are being more cognizant that many complications can happen even 10 years after cancer treatment.