January 24, 2017

Friends,

Last week was a really busy week with the Patient Access Network CLL fund reopening, John Pagel, MD, PhD from Swedish Cancer Institute joining our Medical Advisory Board and ibrutinib being approved for marginal zone lymphoma. All good news!

While we were at the 2016 ASH meeting in San Diego, I had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. George Follows about real world data on 300+ CLL patients being treated with ibrutinib compared to clinical trial data. You can view our interview here.

LAST WEEK! Thank you to the 180 of you who have already participated in our Q4 2016 Reader Poll. We would still like to get more responses so we would appreciate it if you can take 2 minutes to answer our 5 question survey in the Ask &Tell section to help us understand patient’s experiences with testing prior to treatment. You can access the survey here. Thank you so much!

Patient Support Group Meetings Next Week and New Ones Forming

Wednesday, February 1^st from 4:00 – 5:00 PM in La Jolla, CA: The UCSD CLL Education and Support Group will be meeting. More information here.

Thursday, February 2^nd at 7:00 PM in New City, NY: The CLL Information & Support Group of Rockland County NY, sponsored by LLS will be meeting. More information here.

ALSO – We are actively forming CLL-specific support group in a number of cities around the country. To see if your city is one of them, go to our home page and click on the interest survey for your city. Not listed, but interested in starting one? Email us at support@cllsociety.org Thanks!

Upcoming Patient Education Meeting

• TOMORROW – Wednesday, January 25^th at 5:30 PM in Del Mar, CA: The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is hosting New and Emerging Therapies for Blood Cancer in 2017 at the Hilton San Diego/Del Mar. There is no cost to attend and a complimentary dinner will be served. Registration is required by January 18^th. To register, please email Shah@lls.org. Access the flyer here.
• Monday, January 30^th from 6 – 7:30 PM, John Byrd will present Ask the Expert: The Treatment Landscape for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. This event is available both in person and streaming. Pre-registration is required. Visit https://treatmentlandscapecll.eventbrite.com to register or for more information, please call JamesCare for Life at 614-293-6428. Access the flyer here.
• Saturday, February 18^th from 7:30 AM to 2:45 PM: The Lymphoma Research Foundation will be hosting Lymphoma Workshop: Understanding Lymphoma Basics and Current Treatment Options which will include disease-specific breakout sessions. There is no cost to attend, but registration is required. Find out more information here.

In the meantime….

Stay strong.

We are all in this together.

Brian Koffman, MD