What are some of the most promising research being done to treat follicular lymphoma?

Yeah, I think some of the more recent advances is even at the level of FDA approvals of immunotherapy-based approaches. That includes things like what's called chimeric antigen receptor modified T cells or CAR-T therapy. There are things that we've been involved with. There's what's called bispecific antibody immunotherapy. And basically the idea is you're using basically the patient's own T cells to come in and attack the tumor in a specific fashion.

There's a lot of research in terms of newer versions of these immunotherapies. I think the other thing is there's been a lot of progress with some of what we called the precision medicine or targeted therapies for follicular lymphoma. We're starting to understand that some patients, follicular lymphomas, have genetic mutations that basically drive that lymphoma to grow. But the way that we can very specifically target with, you know, with drugs therapeutics that often can be very specific and very tolerable.

There recently was a medicine called TASA Metastatic, which was approved in follicular lymphoma, and it seems to work better if patients have a very specific mutation in a gene that occurs in about one in five of these patients. And so we've been involved with, you know, kind of the ideal combinations or mix and match kind of therapeutic options. Now, you know, for follicular lymphoma patients, the most exciting research that's coming out currently with follicular lymphoma are newer types of immune therapies.

So the two newest types of immune therapy that we're now using for follicular lymphoma, there's one called CAR-T, which is where we take part of your immune system called T cells. Take them out of your body, we re-engineer them and then give them back to you so that those T cells are no longer fighting an infection. They are now designed to fight your lymphoma. This is a very effective treatment, but it also is a very intense therapy and most community oncology practices can't get it. So you have to be at what we call a tertiary center, which is usually major centers like Tampa General Moffitt Cancer Center, places like that.

That can be very difficult treatment to get to for many patients. But even more exciting is a newer type of therapy called a BISPECIFIC antibody. So this type of treatment, we don't have to re-engineer your T cells. You don't have to be at a large hospital center to get this therapy. We can actually administer this in community practices. It's a type of antibody that has two parts to it. One part sticks to the lymphoma cell and the other part sticks to part of your immune system called the T cell. And it brings that T cell into the lymphoma to help it, to activate it and help it attack the lymphoma cell.

So we're basically activating your own immune system to attack the lymphoma. And these types of treatments can be very effective for lymphomas. And they can also be given in the community, they can be given outpatient. You don't have to be admitted to the hospital in most cases. And the side effect profile is pretty good. So most patients can tolerate these types of treatment. Even elderly patients can tolerate some of these immune therapy. The toxicity in general is much better than chemotherapy.