ASH Follow-Up Videos on Follicular Lymphoma

I think this will be the last of the ASH posts for this year. (Though, who knows? Maybe I'll surprise you with another one.)

Just like every year, there are lots of experts who give their opinion on the research that was presented at ASH. (Real, actual experts -- not just Cancer Nerds like me who have an informed but un-expert opinion about things.)

A lot of the commentary comes in video form. And sometimes the videos are produced during the ASH conference. A lot of times it's the researchers themselves who talk on video for a few minutes. Sometimes it's other experts talking about the research that excited them.

So here are a few videos for you that focus on research on Follicular Lymphoma at this year's ASH.

First up is "Stephen Schuster: Mosunetuzumab Leads to Durable Complete Remissions in Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma." Dr. Schuster discusses the exciting (but very early) results of research on Mosunetuzumab, the bispecific antibody that some see as a less expensive alternative to CAR-T.

Next: "Should we treat patients with high tumor burden FL with a chemo-free regimen?" In this video, Dr. Loretta Nastoupil of the MD Anderson Cancer Center discusses a phase 2 clinical trial that looked at Obinutuzumab + Lanalidomide. Basically, it's R-Squared but with a different (maybe better?) version of Rituxan. Results were very positive and an improvement (maybe?) on R-Squared.

Third is "AUGMENT: Is the combination of lenalidomide & rituximab efficacious in elderly patients with iNHL?" This one does look at R-Squared. There were a bunch of presentations about R-Squared at ASH this year (I already looked at a couple of them, but not this one.) One of the reasons people were so excited about R-Squared being approved for some types of Follicular Lymphoma is that it is an alternative to traditional chemotherapy. As a more focused treatment, R-Squared should do a better job of not killing healthy cells, and will have different (though not necessarily fewer) side effects than chemo. The AUGMENT trial has been looking at a bunch of data from its R-Squared research, and this presentation focuses on elderly FL patients.  Depending on their health, chemo can be rough on elderly patients. R-Squared, according to Dr. Marek Trněný of Charles University Hospital in Prague, elderly patients seem to tolerate R-Squared better than chemo. That's great -- a better option for a lot of patients (since most FL patients are diagnosed around age 65).

Finally, there's "When should patients with R/R NHL receive the bispecific antibody REGN1979?" The bispecific Mosunetuzumab has received most of the big news this year at ASH, but another bispecific also showed good results. REGN1979 is another bispecific (it attaches to two different cells, the cancer cell and the immune cell that  can destroy it) and has also shown some positive updated trial results. Dr. Rajat Bannerji of the Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey gives the results in this video.


Lots of good stuff at ASH this year for Follicular Lymphoma patients. As I said a few weeks ago, there weren't any real blockbusters this year -- nothing that's going to change the way people are treated anytime soon. Mosunetuzumab might have that promise, but it's very early to say for sure.

But even small improvements are good for us.