Farrah

I'll have to save the Michael Jackson tribute for some other time. MJ was a Friend of Lympho Bob -- "We Are the World" and Thriller has been mentioned here more than once. Very sad news.

But for me, Farrah Fawcett's passing is just a little sadder. I won't get too heavily into why, other than to say she played as significant a role in my adolescence as she did in that of millions of other men around my age. I remember the day I got the The Farrah Poster -- I won it playing Skee Ball at Lincoln Park's arcade (on a day trip with the altar boys from St. Mary's, which somehow made the whole thing even better). I won't even bother linking to an image of The Poster -- you've probably seen it a hundred times in the last day or two.

Farrah lives on for me, not just in the great memory of that poster, but in this very cool and surprising connection:

Her doctor was Dr. Lawrence Piro, who's kind of an "oncologist to the stars" in L.A. But more importantly, he's an internationally recognized expert in blood cancers. He did early work with Rituxin, helping to establish dosage guidelines through his research.

And now he's pushing Zevalin. A Newsweek blog from yesterday includes an interview with Dr. Piro, much of which discusses the importance of oncologists recognizing the benefits of Zevalin and other RadioImmunoTherapies like Bexxar for lymphoma patients.

So, going back to the last post about looking for the bright side -- maybe Farrah's very public battle with cancer will result in some unexpected good for NHL patients.