The Lymphoma Program has published the fall edition of the New Developments in Lymphoma Newsletter.
Please look to this space for further announcements of future newsletter issues, or sign up for advance notice of the newsletter here.
Tag: Lymphoma Patient Education
The Precision Medicine Approach at WCMC Explained
In a recent article from the The Magazine of Weill Cornell Medical College and Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Sciences, physicians and scientists from the Lymphoma Program explained their approach to treating lymphoma. Dr. John Leonard explained,
“You shouldn’t treat everybody who walks in the door the same way. We want to treat with a tailored approach based on what’s most likely to work for that individual patient.”
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Blood cancers have been at the forefront of research on tailored approaches to treatment, known as precision medicine. In large measure, these advancements are due to researchers’ ability to access tumor material from such patients more readily than they can with other types of cancer. In the past decade, Weill Cornell researchers have been involved in developing or testing almost every new lymphoma drug recently approved by the FDA. While most cancers today are treated primarily through surgery and radiation, Leonard notes, cancers of the blood are different. “Lymphoma is a disease where treating with drugs is central to curing the patient,” he says.
The entire article can be read here.
FDA Expands Ibrutinib Approval for Patients with CLL
Earlier today the US FDA announced approval for the expanded use of ibrutinib (Imbruvica) to treat patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), who carry a deletion in chromosome 17 (17p deletion). This chromosome is often associated with poor responses to standard CLL treatments. Additionally the FDA also approved,
“…new labeling to reflect that Imbruvica’s clinical benefit in treating CLL has been verified. In February 2014, Imbruvica received accelerated approval to treat CLL based on its effect on overall response rate. New clinical trial results examining progression-free survival and overall survival have confirmed the drug’s clinical benefit.”
This approval and new labeling reflect the results of previous clinical studies of CLL patients with 17p deletion. Please look to this blog and our clinical trials page for further developments regarding the use of ibrutinib in patients with CLL.
New Developments in Lymphoma 