OncLive published another of their great video series a few weeks ago. I like these series -- they provide some very up-to-date information, and they usually bring in different oncologists to give their perspective for each new series.
This series is called "Recent Updates in the Treatment of Follicular Lymphoma and Mantle Cell Lymphoma." Like all of their video series, this one is meant for oncologists, not patients. But if you keep up with current treatments, it's not hard to understand.
There are 10 videos in the series, and it is structured around treatment lines. In other words, the first video talks about current treatment options for first line -- for patients who have never had treatment for their FL. Then there are videos focusing on second and third line treatment options. This series features a bunch of oncologists. There's Dr. Grzegorz Nowakowski of the Mayo Clinic, Dr. Jennifer Crombie from Dana Farber, Dr. Matthew Lunning from The University of Nebraska, Dr. Peter Martin from Weill Cornell, Dr. Laurie Sehn from the University of British Columbia, and Dr. Bijal Shah from the Moffitt Cancer Center. An excellent group.
The link above will take you to the first video, though the other nine appear right below it. (Unfortunately, this series does not include a transcript.)
The focus is on newer research presented at recent conferences, but really, the discussion is about what's been available for a while. In the first video, the oncologists talk about how they approach a treatment decision for a patient who has never had treatment. This includes watching and waiting for patients with no symptoms. For other patients, depending on their health, this could include just Rituxan, especially if the patient is older and has other health issues. But for younger, healthier patients, some type of traditional chemotherapy might be a good choice. Still other patients, who don't want chemo, they might choose R-squared. And of course, clinical trials are always a consideration. For one of the oncologists, probably half of the FL patients she sees do not have an aggressive disease, and can watch and wait or try Rituxan. This allows more time to consider a treatment path.
The other videos in the series do talk about some of the other options, especially those that had new data presented at the ASH conference. The videos are about 5 minutes each, give or take a minute. Together, they present a pretty good overview of where we are right now in our options for treatment.
Important to consider -- these videos were recorded soon after the ASH conference in December, even though the videos themselves were posted over several weeks after that. Some of the recent issues related to CAR-T are not included in the discussion. I'm sure there will be some discussion of that in another video series.
The panelists are excited about bispecifics, and see them as a third-line possibility, though they are also seeing more evidence that they could work as first-line treatment. There is also some discussion of Zanubrutinib, the BTK inhibitor, with its surprisingly good data for FL.
Lots of good stuff here. If you're looking for a good summary of where we are for treatment, this is a good place to be.
Take care.
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