Thursday, November 6, 2014

Vaccines for Follicular Lymphoma

I've been swamped lately, folks. It's one of those busy times of the year at work, and I took on a project that  is taking way more time than I expected. Not to mention my oldest is applying to colleges now, and that's taking time and energy from all of us. I haven't even had time to respond to your comments, let alone write full posts. Ugh.

So here's a quickie so you know I'm still around:

A fast video from Targeted Oncology. Dr. Joshua Brody, Director of the Lymphoma Immunotherapy Program at Mt. Sinai Hospital, gives a quick take on Vaccines for Follicular Lymphoma. He points out that previous attempts at vaccines haven't been successful because they have targeted one Idiotype. Newer attempts take a more "holistic" approach, and target any antigens related to cancer cells.

The video is only about a minute long, but it gets at the pint that we shouldn't give up on vaccines -- they may be an important part of immunotherapy for us. (As I have mentioned before, the lymphoma specialist I saw soon after I was diagnosed was very excited about vaccines, and so they have always fascinated me.)

If you want to read a little more about Dr. Brody's work, check out another piece from Targeted Oncology, describing the results of a Phase I/II trial run by Dr. Brody, involving another immunotherapy treatment. To be honest, I read it but didn't look into it, so I while I get the overall idea of the approach, I don't know much about the parts.

But it's something else to be hopeful about.

(I'll get to those comments soon, I hope.....)

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