MCC Health Receives Grant to Develop CAR-T Symptom Monitoring Tool

NEW YORK, NY, UNITED STATES, October 19, 2026 /CourierPR/ -- MCC Health, Inc., a developer of patient education platforms, has been awarded a $400,000 grant by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under Phase I of the Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) program. The company will use this funding to develop WAYPOINT, a digital tool designed to help patients monitor and manage symptoms after chimeric antigen receptor T-cell (CAR-T) therapy.

WAYPOINT is aimed at addressing a critical unmet need in CAR-T therapy, a transformative advance in oncology. In the pivotal ZUMA-1 trial, which led to the first FDA approval of a CAR-T therapy for lymphoma, more than 40% of patients with refractory large B-cell lymphoma were alive five years after infusion. However, recovery is a different matter. Research from Mass General Brigham found that half of patients report severe physical symptoms in the first week after treatment, and four in 10 are back in the hospital within 90 days. After discharge, patients and caregivers are expected to monitor these side effects on their own, often feeling insufficiently prepared to recognize and manage potential issues at home.

To fill this gap, MCC Health, in collaboration with Dr. Anna Barata from Massachusetts General Hospital, is developing WAYPOINT. The digital intervention will prompt patients to report symptoms regularly and alert their care team when timely intervention is needed. The platform will include original content, developed with clinical guidance from Dr. Barata, covering CAR-T education, psychosocial support, and timely symptom management information.

The two-year Phase I grant will allow MCC Health and Dr. Barata to refine WAYPOINT with CAR-T recipients and the clinicians who treat them, then evaluate its usability and acceptance. Phase II will focus on bringing WAYPOINT to patients nationwide and measuring its effect on symptom burden, quality of life, and outcomes. WAYPOINT is not yet commercially available and is currently being developed and tested under the Phase I study at Massachusetts General Hospital, which will run through the end of August 2028.

Cancer care is increasingly moving beyond the hospital, and MyCareCompass, MCC Health’s patient education platform, was built to support the gap between point of care and self-care. For most patients, education still arrives as a pamphlet or handout at discharge. MCC Health was founded on the premise that information should be timed and tailored to each patient as an embedded component of treatment.

The development of WAYPOINT is part of MCC Health’s ongoing commitment to improving patient outcomes and quality of life. As CAR-T therapy continues to expand, the need for tools like WAYPOINT to support patients during recovery is becoming increasingly important.