ASH Abstracts Are Here!

Last night, I saw my first ASH abstract linked on Twitter. You know what that means -- ASH is coming!

It's the Cancer Nerd Christmas!

If you're new to this, ASH is the American Society of Hematology, a large professional group for blood cancer specialists (and specialists of other blood disorders). Their annual meeting takes place around the first week of December every year. This year, it's in Atlanta, Georgia (lovely city) from December 9 to 12, and it is often the place where researchers will talk about the work they are doing, sometimes releasing or updating results from clinical trials.

A few weeks before the meeting, the chatter starts. Last night, I saw an abstract on Twitter. This morning, I had a couple of emails in my inbox from publicists who were hinting that good things were going to be announced at the meeting.

It really is like Christmas, with moms and dads telling kids that Santa Claus will be coming soon. Only it's researchers and public relations offices, and instead of getting me excited about video games and dolls, they're talking about immunotherapy combinations and cell-signaling pathways.

Tome, that's just as much fun. And even better, I don't need to behave myself for the next 6 weeks because Santa might be watching.

I have only taken a very quick look at the abstracts for Follicular Lymphoma (you can see them here if you're curious), but it looks like a lot of updates to data from recent clinical trials. I see a lot of Rituxan-focused abstracts, too, and Bendamustine keeps coming up. There will be more updated data for Copanlisib, and more results for trials involving Obinutuzumab, and for Lenalidomide. And it looks like a few abstracts on Transformation.

There's going to be a lot to go through.

My plan, as usual, is to sift through abstracts and write about things that I find interesting. It's pretty subjective -- some of the things I find interesting aren't necessarily that ones that the actual experts are excited about.

It's also important to remind you that I'm not going to be at the meeting. I'm just looking at the abstracts -- the summaries of what's going to be talked about. Sometimes what actually gets said is more important than what gets sent in weeks before the meeting.

I'll also keep an eye out on Twitter and elsewhere for what some of my favorite blood cancer specialists are saying about the meeting, and what has them excited.

And I'll keep an eye out for press releases and articles that come out during the meeting and soon after, bragging about the success of their presentations. (And many of them will be worth bragging about.)

So look for lots of stuff about current research over the next few weeks.

I'll post as often as I can. Looking forward to it. Merry Cancer Nerd Christmas!