Reasons for Hope to End the Year

This is going to be my last post for 2019.

It's that busy time of year, with lots of holidays, and all of the busy things that go with all of that.

I've been collecting a bunch of Follicular Lymphoma-related news, and trying to to figure out when I'll have time to post about it all.

But then I decided, why not just do a quick review of it? A lot of it is stuff that might need more explaining in the future, so maybe it's not worth going into detail right now.

In the last couple of weeks, here's some of what has happened in the Follicular Lymphoma world:

• FDA approval was sought for Tazemetostat for patients with relapsed or refractory FL. Tazemetostat is an EZH2 inhibitor, and stops the gene EZH2 from keeping a cell from dying. (Much more complex than that, but that's all you get for now.)
• The European Commission approved R-Squared (Revlimid + Rituxan) for previously treated Follicular Lymphoma patients.
• A third possible version of CAR-T has been submitted to the FDA for patients with aggressive lymphomas, including grade 3B FL.
• Another Rituxan biosimilar is under review with the FDA. (Biosimilars might be able to do the same job as Rituxan but for a lower cost.)

That's a lot of good stuff in just a couple of weeks. And I'm leaving out all of the stories that are still coming out of the ASH conference.

Maybe it's just that it's the end of the year, and everyone is trying to finish things up before they take off for the holidays?

Maybe it's an ASH thing, and all of these folks got a good response at the conference and now they're ready to make some announcements?

Or maybe some other reason?

Whatever it is, I think it's a great way to end this year, and begin the next one:

There's a lot to be hopeful for.

There is no "good" cancer, and I hate it as much as most of us when someone suggests that FL is a good cancer to have. But I will admit that, in any ways, many of us are luckier than others. If our FL is slow-growing enough,  we may have some time to see these promising new treatments actually show up at the doctor's office. There are still lots of potential problems for the ones that are still seeking approval. But even if some of those things happen, it's still great news for us.

And if you're not of a mind to think in those terms, that's OK, too. We still have lots of great things already approved. Lots of options and lots to be hopeful for.

So let's end this year off, and begin the next one, with hope.

I look forward to sharing it all with you.