Meeting Report For reprint orders, please contact
[email protected]
15th Congress of European Hematology Association Expert Review of Hematology Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by 182.160.102.146 on 05/20/14 For personal use only.
Expert Rev. Hematology 3(5), 541–542 (2010)
Christine Chomienne†1, Margarita Guenova1, Antony Hagenbeek1, Catherine Lacombe1, Shaun McCann1 and Robin Foa1
15th Congress of European Hematology Association Barcelona, Spain, 10–13 June 2010
1
European Hematology Association, Koninginnegracht 12b, 2514 AA, The Hague, The Netherlands † Author for correspondence:
[email protected]
Every year the European Hematolog y Association (EHA) gathers clinicians, researchers, associations and companies dedicated to the field of hematology. Hematology includes all aspects of blood cells from their production and specific functions in humans to abnormalities leading to diseases. Thus, the congress program deals with topics from stem cell physiology and development, to leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment, red blood cells, white blood cells and platelet disorders, hemophilia, thrombosis and bleeding disorders, transfusion and stem cell transplantation, and so on. The program consists of sessions dealing with basic and translational science, clinical trials, diagnostic techniques, a major education program and ethical and regulatory issues. This year’s congress, held in Barcelona, Spain, which marked the 15th EHA congress anniversary, welcomed a record number of 9071 participants. The plenary sessions, with their excellent speakers, drew everyone’s attention to new insights in the different areas of hematology. G Sauvageau (IRIC, Montreal, Quebec, Canada) and JCI Belmonte (Salk Institute for Biological Studies, La Jolla, CA, USA) provided insights into the perspectives of hemato poietic stem cell research with the manipulation of induced pluripotent stem cells to study and potentially repair diseases. They also discussed future diagnostic and targeted therapies for leukemia and the importance of leukemic stem cells. Both speakers emphasized the necessity of well-controlled experimental procedures. S Baylin (The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins, Baltimore, MD, USA) demonstrated
www.expert-reviews.com
10.1586/EHM.10.55
Each year the annual congress of the European Hematology Association gathers clinicians, biologists and scientists dedicated to all fields of hematology. This year’s Congress was held in Barcelona, Spain, and presented an appealing program with experts presenting state-of-the-art sessions to more than 9000 participants.
how drugs that reverse epigenetic abnormalities look promising in the treatment of some blood cancers. The mapping of epigenetic abnormalities also has important implications for identifying new markers for the diagnosis and monitoring of cancer treatment. D Higgs (Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, UK) provided an example with thalassemia in which, thanks to the identification of new pathways in the regulation of globin gene expression, new therapeutic avenues may be envisaged. New developments in heparin-induced thromboc ytopenia were described by A Greinacher (Institute for Immunology and Transfusion Medicine, Greifswald, Germany) providing fundamental research data that underpin well-documented guidelines for the diagnosis and management of heparin-induced thrombocytopenia. A total of 18 education sessions, each with three speakers, gave a comprehensive summary of basic, translational and clinical research in different fields of hematology, further consolidated by 16 ‘Meet the Expert’ sessions. Based on the education sessions, 52 articles are published in the Education Book of the 15th Congress. Simultaneously to the education sessions, two workshops were held this year: a total of 18 keynote speakers were challenged by three chairs of the Molecular Hemopoiesis Workshop – T Enver (MRC Molecular Hematology Unit, Oxford, UK), D Tenen (Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA), I Touw (Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands) – to present, in 5 min, the latest advances in research on normal and leukemic stem cells, transcription, signaling and apoptosis. In the new Laboratory Hematology Workshop, focusing on diagnostic
© 2010 Expert Reviews Ltd
ISSN 1747-4086
541
Expert Review of Hematology Downloaded from informahealthcare.com by 182.160.102.146 on 05/20/14 For personal use only.
Meeting Report
Chomienne, Guenova, Hagenbeek, Lacombe, McCann & Foa
work, three sessions addressed key tools of laboratory hematology: targeting chromosomes and genes – chaired by I Peake (University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK) and J van Dongen (Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, The Netherlands); cell-based analysis with immunophenotyping tools – chaired by A Orfao (University of Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain) and A Porwit (Karolinska University Hospital and Institute, Stockholm, Sweden); and future applicability of genomic tools – chaired by H Döhner (University Hospital Medical Center Ulm, Ulm, Germany). Dedicated sessions debated whether PET scans play an essential role in guiding treatment of diffuse large B-cell lymphomas led by U Dührsen (University Hospital Essen, Essen, Germany) A Hagenbeek (Academic Medical Center, Amsterdam, The Netherlands) and M Meignan (CHU Henri Mondor, APHP, Paris East University, Creteil, France), or whether gentle or intensive treatment is best in young myeloma patients as presented by V Rajkumar (Mayo Clinic, Rochester, NY, USA), M Attal (Hopital Purpan, Toulouse, France) and J Bladè (Hospital Clínic, Barcelona, Spain), while in another session, chaired by M Greaves (University of Aberdeen, Abderdeen, UK), attendees were asked to ponder on how to deal with uncertainty in hemostasis problems in hematological oncology with a panel of international experts: S Schulman (McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada), PM Mannucci (A Bianchi Bondhi Hemophilia and Thrombosis Center, Milan, Italy), M Makris (University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK). A patient advocacy session was dedicated to ‘access to clinical trials’. The session was chaired by J Geissler (European Cancer Patient Coalition, Riemerling, Germany) who had invited representatives of patients: J Pelouchová (Diagnoza CML, Czech Republic); the industry: A Fehervary (Novartis, Origgio, Italy); and clinicians: S O’Brien (Newcastle, UK) to discuss why research, trials and timely results are so important for leukemia patients. They also discussed what patients need to know to alay their fear of joining trials, and gave an example of improved ‘informed consent’. On the other hand, the investigator’s and industry’s perspective on the challenges of convincing patients to join clinical trials was debated along with methods of improving recruitment. Three joint symposia were held with the American Society of Hematology (ASH), the Japanese Society of Hematology (JSH) and the European School of Hematology (ESH). This joint EHA– ASH Symposium focused on the delivery of health care in outreach countries and was presented by Professor I Magrath (International Network for Cancer Treatment and Research [INCTR], Brussels, Belgium). New this year, the joint EHA–JSH symposium highlighted the molecular pathogenesis of acute T-cell Leukemia (T Watanabe, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan) and new treatment strategies for EBV-associated T-cell lymphoproliferative diseases as a model for immunotherapy of virus-induced tumors (H Einsele, University Hospital Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany). As in previous years, the EHA–ESH symposium was an interactive session for hematologists entitled ‘conflicting priorities and collateral damage’ chaired by S Johnson (Taunton and Somerset Hospital, Taunton, UK) with the example of the contribution
542
of HIV infection in increasing the incidence and worsening the prognosis of Burkitt’s lymphoma. This has resulted in changes in the management of patients with Burkitt’s lymphoma. The session was arranged as a play, with the actors being S Johnson (Taunton and Somerset Hospital, Taunton, UK), G Jackson (University of Newcastle, Newcastle, UK) and D Hoelzer (JW Goethe University Hospital, Frankfurt, Germany). This year’s EHA José Carreras Award was given to Professor B Falini (University of Perugia, Italy) who gave a lecture entitled ‘From ALK+ lymphoma to NPM1-mutated AML: monoclonal antibodies map the way’. Professor Falini underscored how the development of monoclonal antibody technology has helped in the study of hematological malignancies and how this has led, from 2005 onwards, to the identification of aberrant nucleophosmin expression in the cytoplasm in approximately 30% of patients with acute myeloid leukemia (NPMc+ AML) and the impact this data has on the management of these patients. The EHA Jean Bernard Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Professor E Montserrat (University of Barcelona, Spain and chairman of the European Research Initiative on chronic lymphocytic leukemia [CLL-ERIC]) in recognition of his seminal contribution to the coordination of research and teaching in the field of CLL. Along with these sessions, the Scientific Program Committee and its Scientific Advisory Board, comprising of 30 members of different fields in hematology, selected from this year’s 2170 submitted abstracts, 1174 for oral and poster presentations. Six abstracts were selected for a plenary session while the others were distributed over 33 simultaneous sessions and 53 poster sessions. This interaction between all players in hematology provided a wealth of the most recent discoveries and results in the field. The six selected abstracts for plenary presentation may be seen as representative of the overall presentations given at this year’s congress. Three dealt with end point results of randomized clinical trials in the management of patients with lymphoma, CML or undergoing hip surgery and requiring anticoagulation. The three others related to more fundamental research in new genetic abnormalities in AML, signaling pathways in myelopoiesis or the stem cell niche. EHA affiliations of the authors
Chair of the 15th Congress of European Hematology Association Scientific Program Committee: Christine Chomienne; EHA Communication Committee: Christine Chomienne (Chair), Antony Hagenbeek, Margarita Genova, Catherine Lacombe and Shaun McCann; EHA President: Robin Foà. Financial & competing interests disclosure
The authors have no relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript. This includes employment, consultancies, honoraria, stock ownership or options, expert testimony, grants or patents received or pending, or royalties. No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.
Expert Rev. Hematol. 3(5), (2010)
