Miranda Moskie
Miranda Moskie is a research nurse in the Surgery and Gastroenterology department at Erasmus MC. She supports patients attending the specialist day-treatment unit and outpatient clinic, where they may take part in clinical studies including immunotherapy trials. Her work is supervised by Professor Casper van Eijck and Professor Herold Metselaar’s Clinical Research Bureau.
Miranda became a research nurse in January 2017 and immediately joined the Named Patient Programme for the immune-modulating medicine Ampligen. Ampligen stimulates the immune system in people with pancreatic cancer by activating dendritic cells. Monitoring changes in patients’ immune profiles during treatment helps the team determine how the medicine affects their immune system.
Patient numbers increased rapidly from February 2017, with some people contacting Professor Van Eijck directly to ask whether they were eligible. Their medical histories varied greatly, both in the stage and characteristics of their disease and in the treatments they had already received, although all had completed standard therapy. Miranda saw about fifteen patients from across the Netherlands each week. They visited Erasmus MC twice a week for ninety-minute appointments over a period of up to eighteen weeks. The schedule was demanding, but the programme also gave many patients valuable support.
Miranda works closely with her colleague Diba Latifi, who presented the study’s initial findings. These results provide a first indication of whether Ampligen might eventually be combined with another form of immunotherapy, such as dendritic cell therapy.
With the first phase complete, Miranda now focuses mainly on monitoring the immune system during standard treatments such as chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery. She coordinates the process, from collecting blood samples and contacting patients to gathering the information and clinical input required from all the doctors involved. She will also play a major role when further medicines are tested through similar named-patient programmes.
For many patients, joining a study offers a final source of hope because doing nothing is not an option. I hope that we are helping to build a better future in which people can survive pancreatic cancer. — Miranda Moskie, research nurse.