ASCO!

ASCO is almost here!

It's the Cancer Nerd's Christmas!

In case you're new to all of this, ASCO is the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the largest organization for oncologists in the U.S. Every year around this time, they have their annual meeting, where thousands of oncologists get together to talk about the most recent research in cancer and cancer treatments. (If you've had trouble getting an oncologist appointment in late May or early June, it's because your doctor was at ASCO. That's an annoyance, but ultimately a good thing for you. Your doctor is getting educated on the latest research in Follicular Lymphoma.)

I've always wanted to go, but it's expensive to attend (registration, travel costs, hotel, etc.). But last year, because of the pandemic, ASCO was entirely online, and they made the decision to allow patient advocates to attend for free. I applied, and was allowed to attend all of the sessions I wanted to. Not quite the same as being there, but very cool anyway. Every year, I read the abstracts or summaries of the research on FL, and write about some of them here. But going to a full session lets me see all of the detail that I would otherwise miss. So I'm excited to be able to attend ASCO again this year.

And it should be a good year. There are 552 presentations related to Follicular Lymphoma. Obviously, I'm not going to all of them (and they all actually be relevant to FL, anyway). But I'll write about as many as I can over the next few weeks. 

My quick scan of the sessions shows me a couple of trends: First, there will be a LOT of research this year on CAR-T. That's not at all surprising, and I'm guessing research on CAR-T as a first-line treatment for indolent, slow-growing FL will be talked about a lot (rather than CAR-T for aggressive FL, or for relapsed/refractory FL). 

I'm also seeing a whole lot of research on inhibitors of all kinds -- those that are already approved for FL, and some newer ones that might do an even better job, or that are being tested in combination with other therapies. 

There's a little bit of research, too, on bispecifics, which I am very interested in.

Then there are lots of smaller studies about things like Quality of Life that are a little harder to find, and very important, but tend to not get press releases from universities or pharma companies, so they aren't talked about as much. I'll be sure to look for them.

I don't get a sense yet that there is any real big blockbuster presentation this year on FL. At least, I haven't seen any talk about something like that on Twitter, which is where I usually see that kind of conversation. But maybe there will be a big surprise during the meeting (which happens next week, June 4-8). 

I'll start posting some previews soon, and then some descriptions of sessions after they are given next week. 

It's an exciting time -- the Cancer Nerd Christmas, hopefully with lots of presents under the tree.