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Some interesting advancements in lymphoma research

I don't usually post about all the latest advancements in lymphoma research, mostly because I don't keep up with it so much anymore (it seem's I got a little burned out doing so much of it early on), but also because there just hasn't been anything I considered to be of note.

This year though, seems to be different. I've started doing a little more reading and investigating of some of the latest happenings in lymphoma/leukemia research, and while there still isn't much I'm encouraged about (anything that is truly interesting is still in early development or clinical trials), there were three reports I thought worth mentioning.

The first one was a phase 3 trial, showing that Maintenance Rituximab to be no better than Rituximab administered upon disease progression. While this may not seem so earth shattering to some, I think any research proving less is better, i.e. reducing the number and frequency of treatments, can only be beneficial, and lead to a better quality of life. (You might want to show this one to your hematologist, in case they haven't seen it yet.)

A second study, just finishing stage 2 trials, suggests Obinutuzumab is better than Rituxan.

One of my biggest complaints about a lot of research conducted by the pharmaceutical industry is instead of trying to develop any new breakthrough drugs, they focus their attention more on already existing, effective and of course profitable drugs, so when their patents run out they can still retain their profitability.

Obinutuzumab, a glycoengineered, humanized anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody, is designed with exactly that in mind. It's designed to replace Rituxan, a chimeric (mouse and human) anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody, and already proven to be very efficacious.

Still, anything that has the potential to be better than Rituxan, already considered a wonder drug, has to be encouraging.

The final study, and one that hits much closer to home, are from the results of a Phase 2 study showing great promise for a lymphoma vaccine. I could elaborate some on this article, but I think the link provided does a better job of explaining the results than I could ever do.

Yes, I know it's only through Stage 2 trials, and the completion of a Phase 3 trial could be quite a few years down the road, I'm still encouraged by the results. I've always thought the application of a vaccine to treat cancer had the greatest promise for producing a cure with the least amount of adverse side effects.

Happy reading!
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