Two early-career scientists each were awarded $150,000 Sarcoidosis Research Fellowship grants from the Foundation for Sarcoidosis Research (FSR) to support projects that aim to investigate the causes of sarcoidosis and improve patient outcomes. The fellowships were awarded to Greer Waldrop, MD, PhD, at the University of California,…

A 30-year-old man with renal cell carcinoma — a type of kidney cancer — developed sarcoid-like reactions in his spleen, liver, and lungs, which went away after the tumor’s removal, suggesting that such reactions arose from an unusual immune response against the tumor. The man’s case was described in a…

Years ago, I heard someone in the chronic illness community say they were “medically retired.” It was before I had fully accepted the idea of being disabled, and I thought it was the greatest euphemism I’d ever heard. Until recently, that’s how I described myself, too. But now that…

The Foundation for Sarcoidosis Research (FSR) has launched the Coalition for Clinical Trial Equity, aimed at increasing the representation of Black and African American sarcoidosis patients in trials testing potential treatments. Despite Black Americans being 2.5 times more likely to have sarcoidosis than white Americans, these patients…

I think I need a Bubble Wrap suit. Yep — a full-sized, head-to-toe suit made of industrial-strength protective Bubble Wrap. That (not Obi-Wan) just might be my only hope. My medical records indicate that I’m a “fall risk.” As much as I hate seeing that, I get it. I fall…

Early on in my chronic illness journey, before I knew I had sarcoidosis, I was struggling. I desperately sought answers about what was happening to me, not only physically, but also in other ways, like what my life would look like moving forward, how much of it I’d lose,…

Call me naive. For years, I never understood why my cousin posted the time on Facebook every afternoon. I thought the Doobie Brothers were just a musical family, like the Pointer Sisters or the Jonas Brothers. (They weren’t.) My husband often teases that I grew up “under a…

I was watching the “Morning Joe” talk show this morning — well, not really watching; it was more like background noise while I worked on a few things — when something caught my eye (or, more accurately, my ear). The hosts were introducing a guest who’d just…

“’Hang on a sec, hon,’ I called to my husband in the car, at the airport, and again on the plane. ‘I want to get a good shot. I’m sure something from this trip will work its way into my next column.’” That’s how I started my column one…

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has granted XTMAB-16, Xentria‘s investigational antibody therapy, orphan drug designation for sarcoidosis. The status is intended to help speed the development of therapies that would fulfill an unmet health need for people with life-threatening or chronically debilitating rare diseases, which are defined as…