FL is a disease that for most runs a course of moving from periods of remission into relapse and back again and most patients experience multiple relapses over the course of their disease which can run for years or decades. For a small number of patients the disease progresses earlier and they can face 5-year survival rates as low as 50%.
But like many cancers FL is genetically not just one disease, so to find cures will require a range of therapies to help a range of people. This rests on finding the right drug to be provided to the right patient at the right time.
The FLF are launching a suite of initiatives aimed to make curative therapies available to FL patients as soon as possible. The first initiative is the Follicular Lymphoma Foundation CURE FL Awards – Curative Research to Eliminate Follicular Lymphoma, launched in early 2022. These Awards focus on work in two areas as the most likely to lead to curative therapies available to FL patients as soon as possible: cellular immunotherapy, CAR-T (chimeric antigen receptor T cells) and others, and also targeted therapies, either as standalone treatments or in combination with other treatments. You can read more about these 2022 Awards here.
The 2022 CURE FL Awards are now closed for submission and we will be making further announcements on the successful proposals later this year. Timeframes for the 2023 CURE FL Awards will also be made later this year.