More ASH Reviews

 I'm going through all of the links I have saved from the last month or so, and I have a few more related to ASH that are worth sharing, Not necessarily any new information, but at the very least, it's confirmation that some good things were presented at the conference last month.

The website Medscape published two video reviews of the conference.  The first is called "ASH 2025: The Clinical Impact of New Therapies and Long-Term Outcomes in Follicular Lymphoma." It features Dr. Kami Maddocks of The Ohio State University. She discusses some of the more important presentations at ASH, and focuses on clinical impacts -- how the new information might directly affect current patients.

Of course, she focuses on the data related to Epcoritamab + R-Squared, which she says is "going to change practice." In other words, we're likely to see it recommended for patients who have Relapsed or Refractory disease who are need of a treatment option. She also mentions Tafasitamab plus R-Squared, and the issues related to sequencing CD19-directed therapies. That is, patients who received Tafasitamab kept the CD19 protein on their cancer cells, meaning a teatment like CAR-T, which targets CD19, should be used after Tafasitamab, not before. (The presentation that discussed this was also on The Leonard List for this year.)

Dr. Maddocks also mentions the research that looked at long-term (20 year) follow-ups of FL patients, which found that 40% of patients who received immunochemotherapy (like R-CHOP or R-Bendamustine) were still disease-free after 15 years. And about 20% of patients who watched and waited continue to do so for 15 years. Finally, this study also showed that the risk of Transformation to a more aggressive Lymphoma decreases after 10 years. Dr. Maddocks says this is all important information when oncologists counsel FL patients about long-term outcomes. (This all sounds very familiar to me, but I can't find a link for this presentation, unfortunately, and the video doesn't include it. But it's great news -- I love a good long-term follow-up.) Finally, she discussed the research about GLP-1s and indolent Lymphomas including FL, something else that was on The Leonard List. (You might remember that I was hesitant to discuss that one. Dr. Maddocks thinks it looks very interesting, but there needs to be more data collected about it.)

So lots of good information, with the focus on how it all plays out right now in the doctor's office.

The second video review from Medscape is called "New Options in Follicular Lymphoma From ASH 2025," and features Dr. Michael R. Bishop from the University of Chicago. As the title suggests, Dr. Bishop is interested in some of the new treatments that were presented at ASH. Of course, he starts with Epcoritamab (because that's what everyone is excited about -- he calls it "The Big News" from the conference. He also mentions the presentation on Epcoritamab + R-Squared in untreated FL. He wants to see long-term follow-up to make sure the excellent responses will last, and he points out that it was a very small trial.

 Dr. Bishop also looks at a presentation on the CAR-T known as Liso-cel. In this research, Liso-cel was given to FL patients who were "heavily pre-treated" -- who had already received at least two other treatments. The results were great -- a 97% Overall Response Rate, including a 94% Complete Response. After 36 months, 75% of patients had not yet needed another treatment.  (Sorry -- I don't have a link for this one, either, but it's no surprise that a CAR-T was effective, though Dr. Bishop did point out that there were some secondary cancers in some patients.)

He also discussed another of The Leonard List presentations, this one looking at the Gallium Trial, showing that mutations in EZH2 and CREBBP could help predict success with Bendamustine. This research is important in showing how biomarkers can help guide treatment.

So, again, not much that hasn't been covered already, but I do think it's important to show that multiple Lymphoma experts see certain research as moving us forward. It's hard to see that when just reading abstracts. I enjoy hearing experts tell me what excited them after the conference is over. If you've ever been to a professional conference of any kind, there's a special kind of magic that you feel afterwards, when you have all of this new knowledge that's really exciting. These videos capture just a little bit of that.

More soon. 

 

A Few Approvals

Hello all, and welcome to 2026.

It's been a week since I have posted. I usually try to get something up a little sooner than that. But I started the new year with some computer problems, and it's taken a few days to get things fixed. Thankfully, I'm back to writing. I supposed I could have written a blog post on my phone, but honestly, I'm just too old for that. The buttons are too small, the words are too small, and my patience is too small. I wear progressive lenses for a reason. 

On a related note, Spotify gave me my "Listening Age." If you are unfamiliar, the music steaming service Spotify ends the year by giving you some data about your listening -- the songs or artists you listened to most -- that kind of thing. But they also give you a "Listening Age," a measurement of how old the music is that you listen to. So if you listen to a lot of contemporary music, you'll have a young Listening Age. My Listening Age is 69. I'm not only too old to write with my phone, I'm also too old to listen to anything that wasn't played at my high school prom.

So, just to sum up: 

My biological age is 58.

My Listening Age is 69.

My Lymph Node Age is about 93.

Just so you know what you're dealing with as we enter the new year.

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Unfortunately, I also have a hard time reading on my phone, so I'm behind on Lymphoma news to share with you.

So I'll pass along some of the approval news that has happened in the last few weeks. I haven't been able to share it because I have been focused on ASH.

The big Follicular Lymphoma approval news has been the FDA approval of subcutaneous Mosunetuzumab.  Mosunetuzumab was the first bispecific approved for FL (though Epcoritamab has been in the news a lot more lately). A quick reminder -- bispecifics work by attaching themselves to cancerous B cells, and then also to T cells, which are immune cells that can eliminate the cancer cells. Up until now, Mosunetuzumab has been administered intravenously, through a vein in the arm, over a period of 2 to 4 hours. With the subcutaneous injection, that time is reduced to about 1 minute. A clinical trial showed that the subcutaneous version was as effective and as safe as the IV version. This is, if nothing else, a Quality of Life issue, with less time spent in a hospital or clinic, and more time doing other things. Ideally, this will also bring the cost down. 

In non-USA approval news, the European Union approved Minjuvi (Tafasitamab) plus R-Squared (Revlimid/Lenalidomide and Rituxin) for patients with Relapsed or Refractory Follicular Lymphoma. I wrote about this in November, when it had been given it's almost-approval, but now it's official.

Also, Japan's Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare approved the same Tafasitamab for the same population. I briefly mentioned both of these approvals in my "predictions" post, but I thought they deserved a little bit more attention than I gave them then.

There are a few more interesting FL-related articles that I have seen fromm the last few weeks. My old eyes will have an easier time reading them, and my old fingers will have an easier time writing about them, so look for them soon. And of course, look for my diagnosiversary post next week. I'll have some things to say.