The FLF’s Precision Medicine Programme Research Goals

Technical abstract:

The FLF undertook extensive landscaping and scoping work, identifying a substantial set of unmet needs in follicular lymphoma that the Precision Medicine Programme (PMP) could help to address. This could significantly push the field forward for FL.

Several unmet needs remain unresolved:

Improve understanding of the underlying biology of FL – resistance pathways, epigenetic mutations, role of the tumour microenvironment and immune environment.
Better predict those who will transform to more aggressive lymphoma; predict how patients will respond to treatments.
Improve quality of life assessments – understand impact on slow-progressing patients, aid clinical decision making.
Accelerate development of new treatments, particularly for relapsed/ refractory, and POD2

A consensus workshop stimulated key stakeholders and opinion leaders within the life sciences industry, academia, as well as other foundations, to debate and align on the most important question for the PMP to address. As a result, we identified the top 5 priority research themes for our PMP:

Understanding disease heterogeneity

Optimise treatment regimens & sequencing

Profile & predict treatment toxicity

Develop surrogate endpoints

Enable innovative trail design

We subsequently reached out to our patient community to elicit their views on the most important questions for the FLF’s PMP to address. We had excellent engagement with around 250 patients sharing their perspectives and ranking the order of importance of the top 5 priority research goals. Below is a summary of the patients’ feedback.