Not a Genius

Once again, the MacArthur Foundation Awards were announced yesterday, and once again, I was not given a Genius Grant. The MacArthur people give out 25 Genius Grants every year to people in the arts, sciences, medicine, etc. The grants are for $500,000, with no strings attached.
Most recipients announce some noble intention for the money, but they could spend it on aa half million dollars worth of Cheez Doodlez if they so chose. My kind of grant. Recipients don't apply for them; they are nominated secretly, and most have no idea that such an honor is coming.

I waited patiently by the phone all day yesterday.

Nothing.

There isn't even, like, a lymphoma researcher in the whole bunch. There is a basket weaver, though. Oh, sure, she's single-handedly preserving an ancient art, and her works are on display in major art mjuseums around the country. But still. Where's the love for Lympho Bob?

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Speaking of lymphoma research....

(If you're getting tired of research news, too bad. It's either this or I write about the dog some more.)

Some excellent news yesterday from Cell Therapeutics, Inc., makers of Zevalin, the RadioImmunotherapy drug I've written about before. To remind you: Zevalin is basically a jazzed-up Rituxin. Rituxin finds the lymphoma cells by targeting the CD-20 protein on their surface. Zevalin goes a step further by targeting the protein but then delivering a shot of radiation to the cell. Since lymphoma cells are traveling through the blood, standard radiation treatments won't work. Zevalin (and a similar drug called Bexxar) allow radiation to be used on "liquid cancers," as they are called.

Zevalin has been used as a kind of "far down the line" option, most typically after a stem cell transplant hasn't worked. Yesterday, the FDA gave approval for CTI to apply for a label extension. That means that, if approved, doctors can use Zevalin as a first-line consolidation therapy: rather than waiting to use it far down the treatment line, it can be used as a second option, after, say, Rituxin or a chemotherapy has been tried. In the clinical trial that the application was based on, 87% of the Follicular NHL patients in the study had a complete response (they went into full remission). It didn't wipe out the lymphoma permanently, but it did greatly increase the length of the response. While there are some side effects, most are reversible, and other studies indicate that, unlike some fNHL treatments, Zevalin seems to work even better if it's used a second time.

It's not earth-shattering-there-may-be-a-cure news, but it's pretty good anyway. Zevalin provides another option, which is what fNHLers like to hear.