Gilles Salles, MD, PhD, from South Lyon Hospital Complex, Lyon, France provides an overview of his presentation on ‘chemo-free’ in follicular lymphoma held at the 2016 Annual Meeting of the British Society of Haematology (BSH) and International Society of Hematology (ISH), in Glasgow, Scotland. Prof Salles outlines the limitations of chemotherapy and the reasons why he supports a ‘chemo-free’ approach. He argues that chemotherapy is not curative and that agents that can modify the microenvironment, may be successful at managing the disease. For example, monoclonal antibodies such as anti-CD20, either alone or when combined with chemotherapy, can improve the survival of patients. According to Prof Salles, the aim is to develop further combinations with anti-CD20 antibodies and he discusses the evidence in favor of this approach. For example, the combinations of lenalidomide plus rituximab, lenalidomide plus inotuzumab and anti-PD-1 antibody plus rituximab have shown some encouraging results according to Prof Salles.