March 20, 2018

Friends,

Today I’ve posted an interview from ASH 2017 with Dr. Rick Furman from Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City. We talked about the research being done with acalabrutinib for patients with relapsed CLL. This novel agent is more highly specific for BTK and therefore could potentially reduce adverse events. You can access my summary and the interview here.

Monocloncal B-Cell Lymphocytosis (MBL) Study – While we know that most of our readers have CLL or SLL, or are caregivers for those patients, we were contacted by some researchers about making any patients who have MBL, a precursors to CLL, aware of a study to understand how they are coping with this diagnosis. They are gathering this data in order to provide supportive services or education to help cope with pre-cancerous conditions. You can read more about it and access the survey here.

Watch for alerts about new CAR-T blog posts in the What’s New section on our home page. If you haven’t checked out yet, you can access it here. Feel free to leave me comments too!

Also we have updated our CAR-T comic book with a page on lympho-depletion and another on neurotoxicity. You’ll find it here!

Shopping on Amazon? Amazon is tripling the donation rate on your first smile.amazon.com purchase through March 31! Go to smile.amazon.com/ch/46-4131354 and Amazon will donate to CLL Society Inc.

CLL Patient Support Group Meetings Coming Up

NEW CLL SUPPORT GROUPS IN NASHVILLE (3/24) AND SALT LAKE CITY (4/11)! Stay tuned for more information on these and others!

Saturday, March 24^th at 10:00 AM in Brentwood, TN – The FIRST MEETING of the Nashville CLL Support Group, sponsored by the CLL Society, will take place. More information here.

Saturday, March 24^th at 1:00 PM in Newton Lower Falls, MA – The Boston CLL Support Group, sponsored by the CLL Society, will be meeting. More information here.

Tuesday, March 27^th at 7:00 PM in Berea, OH – The Northeast Ohio CLL Support Group, sponsored by the CLL Society, will be meeting. More information here.

CLL Patient Education Meetings

Leukemia & Lymphoma Society Sponsored Meetings

Saturday, April 7th from 8:00 AM – 3:45 PM in Aurora, CO

The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS) invites you to attend the Rocky Mountain Blood Cancer Conference being held at the Hyatt Regency Aurora-Denver Conference Center. John Burke, MD from the Rocky Mountain Cancer Centers will be presenting the CLL Breakout session. This event is free but registration is required. Find out more information here. Register here.

Thursday, May 31^st from 6:00 PM – 9:00 PM in Bloomington, MN

LLS invites you to attend Living Well with CLL: Diagnosis, Treatments and Support being held at the Marriott Minneapolis Airport in Bloomington, MN. Veronika Bachanova, MD, PhD and William Robiner, PhD, ABPP, LP from University of Minnesota will be presenting. This event is free but registration is required. Dinner will be provided to registered attendees. Find out more information here. Register here.

SAVE THE DATES – FUTURE CLL PROGRAMS SPONSORED BY LLS PLANNED!

North Carolina either May 5th or May 19^th
Cleveland, Ohio on June 7th

Lymphoma Research Foundation Sponsored Meetings

Tuesday, April 3rd from 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM in Atlanta, GA

The Lymphoma Research Foundation invites you to attend a FREE program: Ask the Doctor About Lymphoma: Updates on Lymphoma and Treatment Options at Courtyard Atlanta Decatur Downtown/Emory featuring  Dr. Christopher Flowers from Winship Cancer Institute of Emory University. Find out more information and register here.

Thursday, April 5th from 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM in Rochester, NY

The Lymphoma Research Foundation invites you to attend a FREE program: Ask the Doctor About Lymphoma: Updates on Lymphoma and Treatment Options at The Strathallen Hotel and Spa – A Doubletree by Hilton featuring  Dr. Carla Casulo from the University of Rochester Medical Center. Find out more information and register here.

Thursday, April 12th from 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM in Pittsburgh, PA

The Lymphoma Research Foundation invites you to attend a FREE program: Ask the Doctor About Lymphoma: Updates on Lymphoma and Treatment Options at the Pittsburgh Marriott City Center featuring  Dr. Alison R. Sehgal from the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. Find out more information and register here.

CLL Patient Advocacy Group and Lymphoma Canada Sponsored Meeting

April 19-21, 2018 in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada

The CLL Patient Advocay Group, Lymphoma Canada and the Juravinski Cancer Center invites you to attend a free 2 day meeting CLL Live 2018 Many Reasons for Hope at the Hilton Hotel and Suites in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Find out more information here. Register here.

Blood & Marrow Transplant Information Network Sponsored Meeting

April 28-29, 2018 in Denver, CO

The BMT InfoNet invites you to attend the 9th National Celebrating a Second Chance at Life Survivorship Symposium 2018 for bone marrow, stem cell and cord blood transplant survivors and caregivers. This unique two-day symposium educates and empowers survivors about how to cope with long term side effects of transplant. It’s being held at the Hyatt Regency Aurora – Denver Conference Center in Aurora, CO. Find out more information here. Register at https://www.bmtinfonet.org/symposium2018

In the meantime….

Stay strong.

We are all in this together.

Brian Koffman, MD