LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – A major step forward for cancer treatment in Southern Nevada. It saved the life of a Las Vegas mom diagnosed with blood cancer while pregnant with her third child.
“I love being a mom. Love having my kids and these little moments when they are so young,” shared Aryanna Scott Brewer while holding Ruby Rae.
The miracle baby, born three months early and weighing just one pound, 3.6 ounces at birth, spent her first 442 days in the hospital. Now, mom and baby are happy and getting healthier finally at home in Las Vegas.
But due to a lack of pediatric and oncology doctors who can treat their continuing needs in Nevada, they must continue to travel out of state.
“Every two weeks I am going back and forth to California… You miss out on a lot. I missed a couple holidays, a couple of birthdays,” Scott Brewer recounted.
A number of cancer treatments including chemotherapy, radiation, and immunotherapy did not work for her. Doctors in Southern California tried something new.
CAR T-cell therapy brought her to remission. Now, that groundbreaking cancer treatment has come to Nevada. MountainView Hospital is the first in the state to conduct CAR T-cell therapy and allogeneic stem cell transplants.
“At least half, if not more, of people who get diagnoses like acute leukemia, myeloma, are not able to leave the state, and so they are left with just the outcome that they would get with standard therapies. And that’s frequently not curative so it’s a huge deal,” explained Dr. Carolyn Mulroney, the new Medical Director of the Sarah Cannon Transplant and Cellular Therapy Program.
Cellular therapy and stem cell transplants that can cure blood cancers and other blood disorders are now being done at Mountainview Hospital’s Sarah Cannon Transplant & Cellular Therapy program at MountainView Day Hospital, a 12,000-square-foot facility that will have its grand opening later this month.
Doctors and nurses who specialize in this type of care recruited from around the country are moving to Las Vegas to staff the program.
A $1 billion free-standing children’s hospital is also coming to Las Vegas. Intermountain Health announced plans last fall for the 150-bed facility expected to open in 2030.
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