ASCO: Ibrutinib and Follicular Lymphoma

My laptop has been in the shop for 2 weeks. The IT came back with it today, but he'd forgotten the new battery he promised. And then he tried to move all of my data back to my brand new hard drive (which was the real problem) and found that it hadn't all copied over from my old, broken hard drive. He's going to try to fix it, but he has a meeting at 1:00, and may not get to it. [I aso heard about his mom's health problems, which have been taking lots of his time and making him distracted. I can't get mad at him. I know where he's coming from.]

So, it looks like I have my netbook loaner for at least another day. Small screen, weird keyboard, slow connection speeds, tempermental internet browser -- takes about 2 or 3 times longer to do what I want and need to do than usual, but I'm dealing. We cancer patients -- especially those of us who have watched and waited -- are a flexible, patienmt bunch, who know how to keeps things in perspective, aren't we?

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In the meantime, here's another report from ASCO, which ended yesterday: an early report from a phase II trial of Ibrutinib in Follicular Lymphoma patients. The trial itself is ongoing, and looking to recruit 110 FL patients. (See the trial info here from ClinicalTrials.gov.)

Ibrutinib, of course, has been on the cancer radar lately, showing some strong results for different types of lymphomas. As the report indicates, Ibrutinib is a BTK inhibitor, messing with various pathways and microenvironmental elements in ways that make it hard for cancerous B cells to survive. Earlier research showed that about 60% of Follicular Lymphoma patients will have a form of FL that will make them open to Ibrutinib.

Early results from the trial show that this is roughly the case. Of 11 ptaients so far, 3 have shown complete responses, and 3 have shown partial responses.

So that's great news. It will be nice to see further updates, maybe at the ASH conference in December.