More from ASH

I recently posted several comments about studies that were going to be presented at this year's ASH (American Society of Hematology) conference. These were from the abstracts published before the conference took place.

Well, the conference is actually going on now, so there is more news coming out about some promising treatments and trials, particularly related to Follicular NHL. Two press releases to share:

The first discusses a study that shows that as-needed treatment is better than maintenance treatment for asymptomatic Follicular NHL patients. This seems to shed some light on a recent controversy (though I suspect it's really just going to muddy things up some more): Right now, there seems to be a trend toward giving Rituxan maintenance to patients who have had some treatment, whether straight Rituxan, chemo + Rituxan, or some other treatment. With R-maintenance, patients  are given 4 rounds of Rituxan every six months, with the idea that it will help clean up any residual cancer that develops. However, this study seems to show that just waiting until further treatment is needed provides just as much success. So doing nothing until it's necessary spares the patient the time, pain, and cost of more treatment.

I have a small stake in this study, having asked about R-maintenance after my treatment. Dr. R suggested that it would be better to hold off ("Do no harm" is his guiding principle), and I was persuaded to go along with that recommendation. I'd really like to see one side or the other be shown to be definitive, but I'm battle-worn enough to know that there are no easy answers with fNHL.

The other noteworthy press release I came across today had to do with an alternative to Rituxan called GA101, or  Obinutuzumab. Like Rituxan, it's a monoclonal antibody, and it also targets the CD20 protein on the surface of the cancer cell, but unlike Rituxan, it is made from human (not mouse) cells, and so is thought to have fewer potential side effects. This press release (scroll down; it's the third study discussed) provides some numbers from a small-ish (175 patient) phase 2 study, the first that compared the two directly. These are some (I think) small improvements with the GA101. We'll see if, ultimately, the FDA thinks the difference is big enough. If nothing else, it will be one more weapon in the arsenal.

I'll keep looking for more good news to come out of ASH. The dust will clear in the next few days (dust-ASH...funny....), and we'll see more bragging press releases soon, I'm sure.