Tuesday, May 23, 2023

Some Upcoming LRF Opportunities

As you probably know, I like to highlight some of the educational opportunities offered by LRF, the Lymphoma Research Foundation. I think the LRF does a great job with these. They have some excellent speakers -- experts who know the latest research, and know how to explain things to patients. 

You can find more information about LRF's upcoming opportunities by clicking here. There are both online webinars, and in-person workshops. (I think the in-person workshops are a fairly recent thing. Before the Covid pandemic, they were very popular. But then LRF went to only online for their events. Now they're back in person again, for some of them.)

One online opportunity that I think will be great is coming up very soon -- May 25 -- a webinar on Oral Therapies. The speakers will be Dr. Michael Williams from UVA Health and Dr. Deborah Stevens from the University of Utah. Oral Therapies are treatments that patients can take in pill form, usually once a day, rather than going into a clinic for an intravenous treatment. They include some of the PI3K inhibitors that ran into problems with the FDA, though there are a few others as well. The webinar will look at some new and upcoming oral therapies, and there will be a section on Quality of Life concerns. I'm especially pleased about the Q of L discussion. One of the common side effects from some oral therapies is increased digestion problems. I always like to hear experts talk about Quality of Life issues, so patients can make decisions on their own about whether the effectiveness is worth the possible lifestyle changes. This webinar is happening on May 25, so if you're interested, go to the LRF site for more information.

Another online event is happening on July 19. This one will be on Bispecifics. It should be great. As you probably know, bispecifics are one of the treatments (along with CAR-T) that get experts most excited these days.

Finally, there is one more webinar scheduled for July 25. This one is called "Lo Que Debe Saber Sobre El Linfoma" -- What You Should Know About Lymphoma. It will cover some basic information about lymphoma, and will be conducted in Spanish. That might be of interest to many of you. 

All of those will be online, so they are open to just about anyone.

As I said, LRF is going back to in-person events, too. One of these will be a day-long workshop in Chicago on June 17. Free breakfast and lunch! And some great information about Lymphoma, of course. More information here

Finally, the LRF has posted a "Save the Date" announcement for their annual North American Educational Forum, a 3 day event taking place October 6-8 in Brooklyn, New York. To be honest, I'm not sure how this is going to work. I've attended a couple of these in the last few years, when they have been online. So I'm not sure what kind of financial support there might be for people who want to travel there. I'm not too far from Brooklyn, so I'm giving some serious thought to attending this in person. If a bunch of you are planning to go, maybe we can plan a meet up. That would very cool. I'll post more details when the LRF makes them available. 

I hope one or more of these look interesting to you. As you now, I'm a big fan of staying informed, and the LRF does a great job with that.

(And a reminder -- I'm unavailable for a while longer, in case you're trying to get in touch with me. I'll be back soon.)


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