Nathan Fowler, MD, associate professor, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the differences in response to the same therapy for patients with follicular lymphoma.

It has been well known that patients with follicular lymphoma behave very differently with the same therapy, explains Fowler. Some patients who are receiving the same therapy can have a median survival of 3 to 5 years, whereas others can have a median survival of 14 years. The field has been moving to identify those patients with different types of biological and clinical factors.

Several years ago, the FLIPI scoring system was developed, which looks at 5 clinical factors in patients before they receive treatment. The FLIPI score is able to successfully predict the patients who will have positive or negative outcomes, states Fowler.

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Dr. Fowler on Different Responses to Therapy for Follicular Lymphoma

Nathan Fowler, MD, associate professor, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, discusses the FLIPI scoring system in follicular lymphoma.

FLIPI predicts disease progression in groups of patients through factors of low hemoglobin levels, stage III/IV disease, number of nodal sites, patient age, and amount of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH). It is used to determine if a group of patients will have a worse outcome overall.

Fowler emphasizes that this system looks at the group as a whole. This means that individual patients who may have a better outcome can exist within a test group—but there isn’t a way to determine who those patients are.

Nathan Fowler, MD

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Dr. Fowler on Different Responses to Therapy for Follicular Lymphoma

Dr. Fowler on FLIPI Scoring System in Follicular Lymphoma