The Biology of Lymphoma

Big weekend in our family -- my wife and I drove our oldest child off to college, and left him there to begin the rest of his life. We're sad to see him far away from us, but excited to see what comes next in his life. He was good enough to call us tonight, and let us know that he's making friends and having fun. He starts classes in a week, and getting to know his new school and his new city in the meantime.

Another milestone for me as a cancer patient, too. When I was diagnosed, I hoped that I'd be around long enough to see this. Very happy to be here for it.

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It's exciting to think about all that's come before, and how it has built up to where we are now, whether its a child or a cancer treatment.

OK, that was an awkward transition, but here's the cancer portion of this blog entry:

The good folks at Patient Power have a fairly recent video with some commentary from the European Hematology Association meeting that took place earlier this summer. The video is called "How can we apply our growing understanding of the biology of cancer?" and it features a short (less than 3 minute) conversation with Dr. Andrew Davies from the University of Southampton in the UK.

Dr. Davies discusses his excitement over some of the recent discoveries in the biology of lymphoma, and how new treatments (like kinase inhibitors and BTK inhibitors) are being developed as a result of this new knowledge. He makes some interesting points about where we go from here, and the partnership that researchers, clinicians, and patients have to create in order for it all to happen -- that means participating in clinical trials so we can see if they work, and how.

It's a short video, but an important message.