It’s been another year of high achievement for the American Society of Hematology (ASH), whose 66th ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition this week in San Diego showed us all that this is one of the most effective and forward-thinking science organizations in the world.
ASH has been around since 1958. The group’s first official meeting was held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, where more than 300 hematologists gathered to discuss clinical and research matters related to blood and blood diseases. Common blood disorders include anemia, bleeding disorders such as hemophilia, blood clots, and blood cancers such as leukemia, lymphoma, and myeloma.
Hematology is the study of blood in health and disease. It includes problems with the red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets, blood vessels, bone marrow, lymph nodes, spleen, and the proteins involved in bleeding and clotting (hemostasis and thrombosis). A hematologist is a medical doctor who applies this specialized knowledge to treat patients with blood conditions, according to ASH.
The men and women of ASH have changed the world. But it’s just the beginning. This is arguably the most exciting era of the organization’s entire existence. I’ve been attending ASH conferences, seminars, etc., since I was first diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in 1996. We are finally really cracking the code, so to speak.
The cancer arena was a vastly different situation in those early days, with far fewer treatment options or ways to really understand how cancer works. When I was diagnosed, I chose to be treated with CHOP, a chemotherapy regimen that combines the drugs cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin hydrochloride, vincristine sulfate, and prednisone to treat non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL). It wasn’t fun, but it did put me back into remission, if for a short period of time.
When the cancer returned, I respectfully told my oncologist that I was going to bypass CHOP and instead enter a clinical trial. I was inclined by that time to take some educated chances. The drug in the trial that I selected was called Bexxar. I just knew that it was my best bet. I told my oncologist respectfully that I was going to do the trial.
Clinical trials were not as prevalent then as they are now. Many cancer patients back then looked at trials as being too risky, too dangerous. But my choice turned out to be the best one. Bexxar gave me 20 years of remission. This long, happy respite gave me all those beautiful years with my wife and daughter.
Sadly, tragically, GSK did a poor job of marketing the Bexxar treatment, and in early 2014 the pharmaceutical company that owned the rights to Bexxar killed the drug. It never should have happened, as I wrote at the time in the International Business Times.
Fast forward to a year or so ago. I was beginning to feel sick again so we went in to check it out. I learned at that point that I had cancer again, only this time it was something called DLBCL, an often very aggressive type of lymphoma.
The good news is that it was treatable with something called CAR-T Immunotherapy, a relatively new way to fight cancer that has rightfully gotten a ton of positive press. I was filled with optimism. And the treatment did work. But in less than a year I was sick again. And now we were down to only a few potential treatments.
It is very disappointing since so many people I know have had robust remissions of 6 to 7 years already with CAR-T. But the work they have done in CAR-T Immunotherapy is absolutely life-changing and has already saved so many. I did the right thing, It bought me another year.
I’m currently deciding which treatment to choose, with my oncologist’s assistance. I am also helping my fellow blood cancer patients make good decisions. There is no Holy Grail here. We are looking at several different treatment modalities, none of which are perfect. But there are options.
Obviously, the first thing you need to do if you are in my position is reach out to your oncologist. If you don’t have one, get one. There are numerous options for us, including clinical trials. There are, for example, bispecific antibodies for patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) who like me have relapsed after having received CAR-T.
They offer an off-the-shelf immunotherapy that can be administered quickly and can be effective even in patients who are not suitable for further CAR-T treatment due to prior exposure to CD19-targeting therapies. There are more options. Go online. Reach out to ASH. And get an oncologist.
I’m almost certain now that I will be doing another clinical trial. It certainly could be a bispecific antibody approved to treat DLBCL — perhaps epcoritamab or glofitamab. There are options. There is still hope.
As F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in The Great Gatsby, my favorite book, “Gatsby believed in the green light, the orgastic future that year by year recedes before us. It eluded us then, but that’s no matter–tomorrow we will run faster, stretch out our arms farther. . . . And one fine morning—-.”
I tend to extrapolate the positive side of America’s greatest novel, just as I tend to extrapolate the positive side of my current situation with cancer. There remain choices. For all of us.
It seems my path always takes me back to ASH. I have returned to that source yet again for a simple reason: I want to live. ASH gives me information and strength and lifesaving information. It is a vast and reliable source of information.
In the next several weeks I will be writing about some of the best scientific advances to emerge from this meeting. I’ve already begun.
More information about clinical trials from ASH is available here.
