The American Society of Clinical Oncology (#ASCO16) annual meeting kicked off today as more than 30,000 researchers from around the world converged in Chicago to share their latest clinical findings on treatments and diagnostics for all cancers, and to exchange ideas about how to improve outcomes for cancer patients. Putting patients at the center of cancer care and research is this year’s theme at ASCO, something we at The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) try to do every day. Sprin...
Helen Heslop, M.D., leads a team of scientists being funded through LLS’s Specialized Center of Research Program (SCOR). The project brings together researchers from different institutions to test a half dozen novel approaches to cancer immunotherapy – all of which harness the patient's own immune system to fight the cancer. Heslop, a professor in the Department of Medicine and Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine and the director of the Center for Cell and Gene Therapy, pioneered...
The Food & Drug Administration’s accelerated approval of an immunotherapy for patients with Hodgkin lymphoma who have failed other treatments is a positive development for patients who face a very poor prognosis. While Hodgkin lymphoma is now considered one of the most curable forms of cancer – with a more than 86 percent five-year-survival rate overall – those patients who relapse after treatment have a much reduced chance of survival. FDA’s approval of nivolumab (Opdivo®)...
What is AML? What research is underway? And what resources are available to patients? The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society recently joined up with Patient Power and the MDS Alliance to host an AML Awareness Day and answer those questions. The April 21 webcast was moderated by Carol Preston, host of Patient Power, an online portal offering cancer information for both patients and professionals. Preston is also a chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) survivor. The panelists were Ellen Ritc...
Wanting to make sure the patient voice is heard when it comes to the development of new therapies, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) recently brought a delegation to Washington D.C. to share personal experiences with the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA). Plans for a research study to learn what patients and caregivers are looking for in new treatments were also presented. LLS’s Office of Public Policy knows the importance of pushing for new drug development, but you can...
Ibrutinib just became the latest therapy for blood cancers to receive an expanded approval use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Such therapeutic advances have been making great progress in recent months and a number of investigational agents – first approved for one disease and population – are being expanded to new uses. Almost 300 drugs for blood cancers are currently in clinical trials or awaiting FDA review.
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society recently brought together a world-renowned panel of thought leaders to discuss the latest advances and insights into blood cancer research and treatment, drug costs and patient access, and patient advocacy and policy. “There’s never a good time to get cancer but this is a phenomenal time to be fighting it,” said Louis J. DeGennaro, president and CEO of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS).
For more than 66 years The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) has dedicated its energy and resources to finding cures for blood cancers, investing more than $1 billion over that time. Last night in his State of the Union address, President Obama appointed Vice President Joe Biden to take the lead in a “moon shot” mission to cure cancer. We at LLS agree the time is right. “It’s personal for everybody,” the Vice President later said in a statement. As Vice President Biden...
Yesterday we learned the exciting news that the FDA has granted Breakthrough Therapy designation for an investigational immunotherapy LLS is supporting through our Therapy Acceleration Program (TAP). The therapy, KTE-C19, being developed by Kite Pharma, is another example of a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR), an approach that genetically engineers patients’ immune T cells and reintroduces them into the body to kill cancer cells. KTE-C19 is crafted by removing patients' T cells and geneti...
Beat AML is a collaboration launched nearly three years ago by LLS and the Knight Cancer Institute at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), to go on the offenensive against acute myeloid leukemia (AML), a blood cancer with a poor prognosis and little change in the standard of care in 40 years. More than a dozen abstracts from the first phase of the initiative will be featured throughout the American Society of Hematology (#ASH15) Annual Meeting in Orlando over the next few days. #...
