Introduction: Rethinking the Natural History of Follicular Lymphoma
For decades, follicular lymphoma (FL) has been characterized in oncological literature and clinical practice as an indolent but incurable malignancy. The standard narrative shared with patients often emphasizes a ‘waxing and waning’ clinical course, where periods of remission are inevitably followed by relapse, eventually leading to treatment resistance or histological transformation. However, long-term data from landmark clinical trials are now beginning to challenge this dogma. The 15-year follow-up analysis of the SWOG S0016 trial, recently published in JAMA Oncology, provides compelling evidence that a substantial subset of patients with advanced-stage FL may achieve what can functionally be termed a cure.
