After all, this is the CLL Blog. Since I have some worries that bear watching, but am not actively dealing with the disease at this time, I have the time to think and write about other things. I am thankful for that. The Fludarabine/Cyclosphosphamide/Rituximab (FCR) chemotherapy regimen developed at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston has been very helpful in allowing me this respite. I am thankful for it as are thousands of others.

The link below is from the CLL Global Research Foundation, headed up by Dr. Michael Keating (you know him as Gooday) at M.D. Anderson. Many promising things are emerging that may replace current treatments in the near future, including targeted gene therapy. These new things are not chemotherapies, but biological treatments that target only the cancer cells. The most promising of these seems to be the Chimeric Antigen Receptors (CARS) where a patient’s own T-cells are modified to attack the cancer as if they were antibodies produced by our own bodies. In the video below, Dr. Keating also mentions other drugs that are showing much promise and talks about the “bridge” drugs that he sees in the immediate future that will fill the gaps between the targeted gene therapies and traditional chemotherapy.

Watch to learn more:  http://player.vimeo.com/video/56923252?api=1

Keep up the good work, Dr. Keating, and all those in the Leukemia Center at MDA! Thanks to all of you who have devoted your careers and lives to research on finding a cure for this cancer. Don’t be slackers, now!!!! 🙂