That post title is a lot, but it's the subject of some very cool recent research on Follicular Lymphoma that might be a big help to us someday. The Blood Cancer Journal just published an article called "Patient-Derived Follicular Lymphoma Spheroids Recapitulate Lymph Node Signaling and Immune Profile Uncovering Galectin-9 as a Novel Immunotherapeutic Target." There's a lot of science in that title, and even more in the article, but as I said, it's very cool research. The article describes the use of something called a Lymphoma Spheroid. As the "sphere" in the name implies, it's kind of a ball ..read more

It's that time of year again -- voting for the Social Health Awards is now taking place. The Social Health Awards as sponsored by Health Union, and they recognize online health advocates who represent patients with a wide range of health conditions. There are 10 categories for the awards, ranging from Rookie of the Year to Lifetime Achievement Award, recognizing efforts at caregiving, using social media, working as a team, etc. I have been blessed to have been nominated many times in the past (and thanks to those of you who have nominated me), and I was fortunate enough to have been a finalist ..read more

The ASCO Post, a kind of newspaper for oncologists, published a video series on treating relapsed/refractory Follicular Lymphoma. If you've been reading for a while, you know how much I enjoy watching video series like this one. I like listening to experts get excited about treatment options.  For this series, the participants are Dr. Andrew M. Evens (Rutgers University), Dr. L. Elizabeth Budde (City of Hope Medical Center), and Dr. Carla Casulo (University of Rochester). What's especially interesting about this series is that instead of talking about treatments in general, they look at c ..read more

 I know that title is a little click-baity, but I couldn't come up with something short that really captured the complexity of this issue. The Journal of the American Medical Association published a study last week that looked at treatments that were given Accelerated Approval in the last 10 years. It's called "Clinical Benefit and Regulatory Outcomes of Cancer Drugs Receiving Accelerated Approval." The question they sought to answer (and this is quoted from the article) was "What is the clinical benefit of cancer drugs granted accelerated approval, and on what basis are they converted to ..read more

There's a really interesting speaker series that happens every year in New York City called "Great Debates and Updates in Hematological Malignancies." Basically, a bunch of famous oncologists get together, two of them pick sides of a debate about blood cancer, each one speaks for a while, some others comment on what they said, and they move on to the next debate. It's probably a little bit misleading to call them "debates." I'm not sure they really expect there to be winners and losers. It's more like they are exploring together, looking at issues that don't have definite answers, and offering ..read more

I saw an article a few days ago that caught my attention. It's from The Guardian, written by an oncologist from Australia, and it's called "Patients keep asking if they should take cannabis for their cancer. The answer is still no." That title -- with it's "No" at the end -- reminded me of a sign that I saw once in a doctor's office. The doctor was a pain specialist, and I was there with a loved one. The sign said, in big letters, "If you are using marijuana for any reason, WE WILL NOT TREAT YOU!" Those are both very strong statements from doctors, and they show clearly how against cannabis us ..read more

A small pharma company announced today that it was submitting an Investigational New Drug (IND) application to the FDA for what they are calling "CAR-T 2.0," a newer, better version of CAR-T (or so they hope). The treatment is called SynKIR-310, and the phase 1 trial will be patients with relapsed/refractory B-cell Lymphomas, including Diffuse Large B Cell lymphoma, Follicular Lymphoma, Mantle Cell Lymphoma, and Marginal Zone Lymphoma. Their treatment includes a couple of differences when compared to current CAR-T treatments. They call theirs KIR-CAR, the "KIR" being "Killer-Cell Immunoglobin ..read more

I've been thinking about cancer a lot lately. That's no surprise. There hasn't been a day in 16+ years that I haven't thought about cancer. It's a side effect of being a cancer patient, as well as a blogger who needs content. But I'm also keeping an eye on a couple of other folks who both have cancer. They are people that I work with. I've known them for years, though I wouldn't say I'm personally close with them. Their diagnoses have an effect on my job, so they told me about it before they told most people. They also know about my own diagnosis from years back, so I think they trust me to be ..read more

Here's a kind of fun item for you Cancer Nerds: the website Fierce Pharma is holding a "drug name tournament" for the next few weeks. Some background for you first. In the U.S., we are just beginning the period known as "March Madness." College basketball is a big deal to many people in this country, and this week, the NCAA tournament begins. This involves 64 basketball teams that will play each other to determine who the national champion is. (I know it's actually 68 teams, but we're not going to complicate this any more than necessary.) And there are actually two tournaments, one for men's t ..read more

 A follow-up to the news from a few months ago that the FDA was issuing a warning about CAR-T causing secondary cancers. After reports of patients who had received CAR-T developing T cell cancers, the warning was issued in January.  The concern was that the patients were developing T cell cancers specifically. CAR-T, of course, currently made for each individual patient who receives the treatment. T cells are removed from the patient, manipulated to recognize cancer cells, and put back into the patient. Because the T cells are manipulated, the concern is that the process might go wro ..read more