John McCarty, MD

Biography

A doctor, teacher, coach — and musician — putting cancer patients on the road to recovery

With more than 35 years of experience in bone marrow transplantation and cellular immunotherapies, Dr. John M. McCarty has stood alongside his mentors and collaborators as part of many profound — “and gratifying,” he says — advancements in the field.  “We have seen transplants move from a last-chance therapy into a standard to enhance, improve and strengthen by its integration into the overall treatment plan.”

McCarty, director of the Cellular Immunotherapies and Transplant Program at VCU Massey Cancer Center, says the program was performing approximately 50 procedures a year before he took the helm more than 20 years ago. Now, it has grown into a program with national stature that performs about 200 procedures annually. The program offers hope to many patients when traditional treatments fail, and often makes the remissions obtained by other therapies more durable and long lasting.

McCarty leads a team treating patients with cancers in their blood and lymphatic systems as well patients experiencing bone marrow failures and autoimmune diseases.

“For all its strong basis in science and data, this field also depends on the art of medicine,” says McCarty, a professor in VCU’s Department of Internal Medicine. “We must constantly find the best balance between effective therapy and the least toxicity. We must provide a tailored approach to each patient who has a disease that will not, or has not, responded to traditional therapies, or in consolidation of a complete response.”

He adds: “To succeed, a physician must be a compassionate humanist, a consummate clinician, an effective teacher, and a curious researcher,”

McCarty serves on the steering committees for national clinical trial networks for organizations such as the Bone Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network and the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Cancer. That brings us early access and input into crafting the best, high-quality national trials for leading-edge care to Massey as well as represent the research done here at Massey to the national stage for multicenter trials and national collaborations.

He has also taken part in many research studies that established new standards of care in the field.

During McCarty’s tenure, Massey Cancer Center was the first to bring an FDA-approved chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy to Virginia. Now, the program offers several FDA-approved cellular immunotherapies for leukemias and lymphomas and is testing novel agents in clinical trials for other diseases.  These approaches are now extending into non-blood cancer treatments such as solid organ malignancies such as sarcoma, melanoma and others.

Cellular immunotherapies like CAR-T therapies involve taking immune system cells from a patient’s blood and then genetically modifying them in a lab to fight cancer cells. Millions of the cancer-fighting cells are created before they are put back into the patient’s bloodstream through an infusion. CAR-T therapies are used to treat certain lymphomas in adults as well as acute lymphoblastic leukemia in children and young adults, and they are being explored for the treatment of a variety of other cancers and blood disorders. 

McCarty calls CAR-T therapy a “critical second chance” to patients whose B-cell leukemias and lymphomas don’t respond to chemotherapy or who saw their cancer return.

The care patients receive from Massey Cancer Center is the kind of care that forms intimate bonds between the providers as well as the patients and their families over the course of years. McCarty stresses that recovery requires patients to get support from medical providers as well as family and friends.

Beyond work, McCarty is a classically trained pianist and vocalist who finds support and joy from his own family, including his “six amazing children.”

Advice to patients: “Use your team. This team is not just your providers, but also nurses, social workers, family, friends, pastoral care support to take each step with you along this journey. You don’t have to, nor should you, do this alone. Learn as much as you can and ask questions. Patients and families who actively participate in their care find an easier path to wellness.”

At home: “My family is a joy and support for me. I have six amazing children and we all share a sense of adventure and curiosity through travel, camping and fishing. I was classically trained as a pianist for over 13 years, and had vocal training at [famed Boston music center] Tanglewood. To me, music is a way of nourishing my ‘right brain’ in ways that the science of our work feeds my ‘left brain.’ I find that I both need and use both in my work with patients.”