I'm going to give you a short, easy post today because I've been using my bad arm too much this week and it hurts. I'm scheduled for surgery in a couple of weeks, and I'm trying to get as much done as I can while I still have use of both arms.
So I found a nice article called "Follicular Lymphoma: Moving Toward a Chemotherapy-Free Future," which appears on SurvivorNet and features the opinions of Dr. George (Changchun) Deng of UH Seidman Cancer Center in Ohio.
This isn't about new research. It's a kind of summary of where we are right now in terms of treatment options. If you've been reading for a while, you know I like to post this kind of article every now and then. It's nice to stop and sum things up every now and then.
Dr. Deng's main idea is that we are moving away from chemotherapy as the main treatment in Follicular Lymphoma, and moving more towards treatments that use the immune system to treat the disease. Traditional chemo can affect healthy cells as well as cancer cells. Newer treatments target cancer cells more directly. Here's a very hopeful line from the article:
"The exciting question is no longer simply whether we can control follicular lymphoma, but which immune-based treatment is best for a particular patient and when it should be used."
Among the treatments that are discussed in the article are Tafasitamab, bispecifics like Epcoritamab and Mosunetuzumab, and CAR-T.
At the same time, chemotherapy is still around, and still an option. Just a few months ago, research suggested that R-CHOP could cure FL for many people. And chemo options are still preferred by many oncologists for transformed FL.
It's a very hopeful article, and very easy to read (SurvivorNet is aimed at patients).
I'll rest my arm and try to right more about some newer research in a few days. Maybe I'll do videos instead (I've got a face that was made for Tik Tok, I think.)
More soon. Stay well.
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