Thursday, July 28, 2016

Immunotherapy in Follicular Lymphoma

Onc Live published one of their "Peer Exchanges" last week, this one focusing on "Immunotherapy in Advanced Lymphoid Malignancies." The four experts discuss several types of immunotherapy, and several types of blood cancers, including Follicular Lymphoma. There are two videos, about 6-7 minutes each.

The first video is called "Immunotherapy: What is the Role in Lymphoid Cancers?" and, as the title suggests, it gives some basics about Immunotherapy and how it is being used in fighting blood cancers.

Immunotherapy is a general term for cancer treatments that use the body's own immune system to fight the cancer. Rituxan, which has done so many great things for Follicular Lymphoma patients for nearly 20 years, is an Immunotherapy -- it attracts parts of the immune system to the cancer cell, which then kill the cell. More recent Immunotherapy treatments target other things, and have been very successful for a number of cancers. The first video discusses some particulat treatments that have been effective for melanoma.

The second video is called "Immunotherapy Response Among Hematologic Malignancies," and focuses more on blood cancers.

The panelists point out that "these are early days" for Immunotherapy for blood cancers -- work on solid tumors has been going on a little longer. But there has been some interesting work in turning off the mechanism that allows cancer to grow unchecked, in several blood cancers, including Follicular Lymphoma.

This year's ASCO conference featured many Immunotherapy sessions, with some early but exciting data that showed a lot of promise for FL. Much of the work to be done now is focusing on finding biomarkers -- genetic signals that will help predict which treatments will be most effective before they are given.

It's an interesting 13 minutes of discussion from some very smart folks.

Immunotherapy: What is the Role in Lymphoid Cancers? - See more at: http://www.onclive.com/peer-exchange/lymphoid-malignancies/immunotherapy-whats-the-role-in-lymphoid-cancers#sthash.j2fNiBSn.dpuf
Immunotherapy: What is the Role in Lymphoid Cancers? - See more at: http://www.onclive.com/peer-exchange/lymphoid-malignancies/immunotherapy-whats-the-role-in-lymphoid-cancers#sthash.j2fNiBSn.dpuf

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