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June
1, 2004 |
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you are unable to view these articles or access the links,
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Top
Stories |
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Legislation and Regulation |
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Clinical
Research |
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Pharmaceutical
News |
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Association
News |
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Calendar |
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Job &
Fellowship Connections |
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Monthly Journal |
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eNews
Archives |
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Tandem BMT Meetings
Feb 10 - 14, 2005
Keystone, Colorado |
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(Note: Answers to these interactive polls are anonymous.)
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Last Month's
Poll Results
In the past 12 months, have you been involved in a lawsuit
involving medical care -- as a defendant, plaintiff or an
expert witness?
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Yes |
(5)
14% |
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No |
(25)
72% |
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My work doesn’t place me in a position where I’m
likely to be involved in such lawsuits |
(5)
14%
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Calendar |
• June
Canadian Hematology Society (CHS)
Annual Meeting
June 2
London Convention Centre
London, Ontario
Canadian Blood and Marrow Transplant Group (CBMTG)
Biennial Meeting
June 3-6
London Convention Centre
London, Ontario
American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO)
40th Annual Meeting
June 5-8
Ernest N. Morial Convention Center
New Orleans, Louisiana
International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR)
2nd Annual Meeting
June 10-13
Boston Seaport Hotel
Boston, Massachusetts
• July
Aplastic Anemia & MDS International Foundation (AA&MDSIF)
Patient & Family Conference
July 9-10
Holiday Inn-Washington International Airport
Linthicum, Maryland
International Society for Experimental Hematology (ISEH)
33rd Annual Scientific Meeting
July 17-20
New Orleans Marriott
New Orleans, Louisiana
Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS)
4th Annual Conference
July 18-23
Palais de Congres de Montreal
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
• September
International Conference on Advances Against Aspergillosis
Sept. 9-11
Grand Hyatt San Francisco
San Francisco, California
Yale University and National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP)
Safeguarding Adult and Pediatric Stem Cell Donors: Basic
Science, Clinical, and Ethical Issues
Sept. 21-22
Bethesda, Maryland
Case Comprehensive Cancer Center
Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Fungal Infection in the Oncology Patient: Update on Diagnosis
and Therapy
Sept. 23
Holiday Inn Independence
Cleveland, Ohio
• October
American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (ASHI)
30th Annual Meeting
Oct. 1-6
San Antonio Convention Center
San Antonio, Texas
American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT)
with the International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT)
4rd Annual Conference on Mesenchymal and Nonhematopoietic Stem
Cells
Oct. 14-16
Wyndham Hotel
New Orleans, Louisiana
International Cytokine Society (ICS)
and International Society for Interferon and Cytokine Research (ISICR)
Cytokines in Cancer and Immunity
Oct. 21-25
San Juan, Puerto Rico
American Association of Blood Banks (AABB)
57th Annual Meeting
Oct. 23-26
Baltimore, Maryland
American Society of Human Genetics (ASHG)
54th Annual Meeting
Oct. 26-30
Toronto, Ontario
• November
European Society of Gene Therapy (ESGT)
12th Annual Meeting
Nov. 4-7
Tampere, Finland
• December
American Society of Hematology (ASH)
46th Annual Meeting
Dec. 4-7
San Diego, California
American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB)
44th Annual Meeting
Dec. 4-8
Washington, D.C
2005
Tandem BMT Meetings
(Combined ASBMT and IBMTR/ABMTR annual meetings)
Tandem BMT Meetings
Feb. 10-14
Keystone Resort
Keystone, Colorado
2006
Tandem BMT Meetings
(Combined ASBMT and IBMTR/ABMTR annual meetings)
Feb. 15-19
Hawaii Convention Center
Honolulu, Hawaii
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Top
Stories |
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Members of Congress urge relaxation of stem cell research
restrictions
A letter signed by 206 members of Congress has been sent to
President George Bush, asking for an expansion of federal
funding for embryonic stem cell research. Current federal policy
restricts government funding only to research using 78 embryonic
stem cells lines that were derived prior to Aug. 9, 2001. The
letter states that only 19 of those lines are available to
investigators, and “it is essential to relax the restrictions in
the current policy for this research to be fully explored.” View
the April 28 letter and a list of those who signed it.
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Stem cell bank said to be world’s first
Britain opened a national stem cell bank on May 19, hoping
to establish a lead in the science and technology of storing and
growing cells and distributing them to investigators worldwide.
Citing the “tremendous potential,” Health Minister Norman Warner
said, “We expect to bring breakthroughs.” Britain was the first
nation to authorize the cloning of human embryos to produce stem
cells for research.
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British government spends millions on stem
cell research
The British government has awarded 57 grants totaling 16.5
million pounds to universities across the United Kingdom to fund
stem cell research. Among the projects receiving funds are a
study by the National Institute of Medical Research in London
that involves using stem cells from the lining of the nose to
repair spinal cord damage.
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Recovery from stem cell treatment can take five years
Leukemia and lymphoma patients undergoing stem cell
treatment can expect full recovery to take three to five years,
according to a study published in the May 19 issue of the
Journal of the American Medical Association. Scientists from
Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center measured improvement in
physical function, return to work, depression, and
treatment-related distress in 99 long-term survivors with no
recurrence of the cancer.
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Researchers cause specialized cells to revert to stem cells in
fruit flies
Using temperature changes to influence cell development,
scientists at Johns Hopkins University have triggered stem cells
that were developing into sperm to reverse their course. The
researchers don’t yet know how this discovery will affect human
medicine.
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Word from President Armand Keating, M.D.
If you’re the type who has no fear of picking up a
pliers or screwdriver when something breaks, or you spend
time on do-it-yourself projects around the house, then you
know the importance of having the right tools for each
job.
I learned long ago that repairing a gate latch and hanging
a new bookshelf can be much easier and quicker -- and the
results better -- if the tools are the right ones for the
project.
Having the right tools has doubtless been on the minds of
the architects of the new Center for International Blood
and Marrow Transplant Research -- the CIBMTR -- that will
open for business on July 1.
The new research center will represent the combined
efforts and fused resources of two stalwarts of the blood
and marrow transplantation community:
• the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP)
• the International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry and
Autologous Blood and Marrow Transplant Registry (IBMTR/ABMTR)
Separately, these two organizations have served transplant
clinicians and investigators very well. The vision for the
new center, however, is a compelling one: to combine their
considerable complementary capabilities to accelerate the
development of transplant therapies, moving us ever more
quickly to improved treatment outcomes.
The IBMTR/ABMTR and NMDP partnership will have the world’s
largest and most sophisticated databases of blood and
marrow transplant outcomes, tissue repositories that
include an enormous selection of samples from many rare
blood diseases, and extraordinary expertise in transplant
biostatistics and immune-biology.
Importantly, too, the CIBMTR will coordinate multi-center
clinical trials through the BMT Clinical Trials Network,
the NIH-funded research consortium that conducts clinical
trials in more than 50 transplant centers.
The new center will have personnel located at both the
NMDP headquarters in Minneapolis and the Medical College
of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Plans call for expanding
current staff by 24 positions.
To read more details about this new venture, scroll to the
Association News section below.
The CIBMTR is a bold and creative idea, developed by
people who are taking a long-range view of our needs as
clinical investigators and basic scientists. The center
may prove to be one of the most important additions to our
tool chest as we seek to expand our understanding of how
transplantation works and harness the power of the immune
system.
As with any new tool, its value will depend on our
learning to use it.
- Cheers, Armand |
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Legislation and Regulation |
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New rules for donation of tissues and cells for transplant
Donors of sperm, cartilage and other commonly transplanted
tissues and cells must be checked closely for infectious
diseases, the FDA announced May 20. Donated blood and organs
have long been strictly regulated. But other donated tissue --
such as skin for burn victims, ligaments for knee surgery,
sperm, eggs and umbilical-cord blood -- are subject to less
oversight. Under the new rules, tissue banks must test and
screen potential donors for signs of infectious diseases that
render them ineligible.
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Committee will consider a National Cord Blood Cell Bank
A committee to study the potential for a National Cord Blood
Cell Bank has been appointed by the Institute of Medicine, an
arm of the National Academy of Sciences. The committee will
assess the status of existing cord blood programs and
inventories and provide recommendations about the structure and
function of a national cord blood stem cell bank. The study has
been requested by the Health Resources and Services
Administration (HRSA) in connection with $10 million in
appropriations bills that have passed both houses of Congress.
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Clinical
Research |
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Graft-versus-host disease improves survival of children
with acute myelocytic leukemia
In children who underwent allogeneic bone marrow
transplantation to treat acute myelocytic leukemia, patients
with grade 1 or 2 acute graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) had
better disease-free survival than those who never developed GVHD.
According to a study published in the May 15 issue of the
journal Blood, relapse-free survival was 62 percent at six years
in patients without GVHD, compared with 76 percent for grade 1
GVHD and 87 percent for grade 2 GVHD.
German researchers find way to extract stem cells from
glandular tissue
Scientists at the Frauenhofer Institute extracted cells from
glandular tissue in a rat and a 74-year-old man, multiplied the
cells, and conserved them by freezing. The cells were extremely
stable and had properties similar to embryonic stem cells.
Callisto Pharmaceuticals testing drug to treat relapsed
multiple myeloma
Callisto Pharmaceuticals Inc. in New York has begun an
open-label Phase I/IIa clinical trial of its Atiprimod drug to
treat patients with relapsed multiple myeloma. The trial is
being conducted at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston
and the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in
Houston. Up to 42 patients may participate in this trial, which
involves 14 days on the drug, followed by 14 days off.
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Pharmaceutical News |
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Drug approved for treating myelodysplastic syndrome
Vidaza, manufactured by the Pharmion Corporation in Boulder,
Colo., has received FDA approval for treating myelodysplastic
syndrome. Because fewer than 200,000 people suffer from this
condition, the drug was given an accelerated approval time of
six months, instead of the usual 10, and the company could have
a seven-year monopoly on treating the disease.
Cryo-cell office in Mexico provides stem cells for
transplant
Cryo-cell de Mexico, a licensed affiliate of Cryo-cell
International in Clearwater, Fla., has provided cord blood
hematopoietic stem cells for transplant. The cells from a
younger sibling were used to treat a 7-year-old from El Salvador
suffering from blackfan diamond anemia.
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Association
News |
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NMDP and IBMTR/ABMTR create new research center
A new research center, to be called the Center for International
Blood and Marrow Transplantation Research (CIBMTR), will be
launched July 1 by the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP) and
the International Bone Marrow Transplant Registry and Autologous
Blood and Marrow Transplant Registry (IBMTR/ABMTR).
Donor Safety Conference in September
Safety, risks, ethics and clinical standards for adult and
pediatric allogeneic donors of stem cells will be addressed in a
conference Sept. 21-22 in Bethesda, Md. The conference is
sponsored by the NHLBI, with support from ASBMT.
Multiple myeloma foundation storms Capitol Hill
For the fourth consecutive year, the Multiple Myeloma Research
Foundation (MMRF) partnered with the Lymphoma Research
Foundation to bring blood cancer patients and their families to
Washington, D.C., for “Blood Cancer Advocacy Days.” On May 19,
about 180 blood cancer advocates from 30 states visited their
Senate and House representatives to encourage NCI support of
novel collaborative research in blood cancers, establish a blood
cancer research program at the Department of Defense, and
encourage the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to
enact a program that provides transitional coverage for oral
cancer treatments.
4th Mesenchymal and Nonhematopietic Stem Cell Conference in
October
Mesenchymal stem cell biology, stem cell plasticity and cell
therapy for cardiac, pulmonary and neurologic diseases will be
addressed in the 4th Annual Mesenchymal and Nonhematopoietic
Stem Cells Conference, Oct. 14-15 at the Wyndham Hotel in New
Orleans. ASBMT is a co-sponsor.
Tandem BMT Meetings to convene in San Diego in 2008
The Manchester Grand Hyatt hotel in San Diego will be the site
of the 2008 Tandem BMT Meetings, Feb. 13-17. The venue has been
approved by the leadership of ASBMT and IBMTR/ABMTR, and
contract negotiations have been completed. The schedule of other
upcoming Tandem BMT Meetings is: 2005 - Keystone, Colo. (Feb.
10-14); 2006 - Honolulu, Hawaii (Feb. 15-19); 2007 - Keystone,
Colo. (Feb. 8-12).
Presentation on voluntary accreditation in cell therapy is
online
"Voluntary Accreditation in Cell Therapy: Working Toward Global
Standards" is the title of a presentation given at the
International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT) at its annual
meeting last month in Dublin, Ireland. The presentation offered
an up-to-the-moment snapshot of accreditation of hematopoietic
stem cell transplant facilities, including cord blood banks,
across North America and around the world. The PowerPoint
presentation can be viewed online. (Allow time for 2.34 MB file
download.)
CD-ROM of 2004 Tandem BMT Meetings available
If you were unable to attend the Tandem BMT Meetings this past
February in Orlando, you can obtain a CD with all of the plenary
and concurrent scientific sessions, and the E. Donnall Thomas
and Mortimer M. Bortin lectures. The CD was mailed this past
month to all who registered for the meetings. Additional copies
are available for $10, plus $2.50 postage and handling. Contact
the ASBMT Executive Office.
Deadline extended to July 31 for $30,000 young investigator
editorial award
The Associazione Donatori Midollo Osseo (ADMO) Federazione
Italiana is offering a prize of 25,000 euros -- about $30,000 US
-- for an article judged best on transplantation of
hematopoietic stem cells from unrelated donors. The competition
is open to investigators of all nationalities not more than 40
years old, for an article published in any scientific journal
with an impact factor higher than 2. The deadline has been
extended to July 31.
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