Tuesday, January 6, 2026

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.

 

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Good info. Also looking fwd to another anniversary!