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August 2, 2004 |
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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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| What do you think our
stem cell transplant field will look like when the cicada next join us
17 years from now? Take our five-question yes/no quiz. We’ll let you
know the results next month. |
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(Note: Your answers to his interactive poll are anonymous.)
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Last
Month's Poll Results
A slim majority of readers (52%) said some conflicts
of interest should preclude an ASBMT member from
serving as an officer or Board member. About a third
(31%) said that every member should be eligible for
election and that conflicts should be considered on an
issue-by-issue basis. The rest (17%) said that as long
as conflicts are disclosed, any member should be
eligible for a leadership position. |
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Calendar |
• September
International Conference on Advances Against Aspergillosis
Sept. 9-11
Grand Hyatt San Francisco
San Francisco, California
Advances in Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Treatment: The Changing
Role of Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation
National Marrow Donor Program/Center for International Blood and
Marrow Transplant Research/Medical College of Wisconsin
Sept. 10
CME Audioconference
6th Annual Conference on Transplant Contracting, Cost
Containment and Reimbursement
Center for Business Intelligence (CBI),
with American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT)
Sept. 20-21
Allerton Crowne Plaza
Chicago, Illinois
Safeguarding Adult and Pediatric Stem Cell Donors: Basic
Science, Clinical, and Ethical Issues
Yale University and National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI),
with the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT)
Sept. 21-22
Sheraton National Hotel
Arlington, Virginia
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
Ninth Biennial National Symposium on Hematopoietic Cell
Transplantation
Division of Blood and Marrow Transplantation, Stanford
University
Sept. 30-Oct. 2
Fairchild Auditorium
Stanford, California
• October
American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (ASHI)
30th Annual Meeting
Oct. 1-6
San Antonio Convention Center
San Antonio, Texas
4th Annual Conference on Mesenchymal and Nonhematopoietic
Stem Cells
American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT),
with the International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT)
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
National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP)
17th Annual Council Meeting
Oct. 29-31
Hilton Minneapolis Hotel
Minneapolis, Minnesota
• 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 CIBMTR annual meetings)
Tandem BMT Meetings
Feb. 10-14
Keystone Resort
Keystone, Colorado
2006
Tandem BMT Meetings
(Combined ASBMT and CIBMTR annual meetings)
Feb. 15-19
Hawaii Convention Center
Honolulu, Hawaii
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Top
Stories |
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Related, unrelated stem cell transplants equally effective
for ALL
Stem cell transplants from unrelated donors are equally
effective as transplants from related donors in treating acute
lymphoid leukemia in first remission, according to a study
published in the July 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical
Oncology. Researchers affiliated with the European Bone
Marrow Transplant Registry evaluated 103 related and 188
unrelated transplants and found disease-free survival to be 45
percent and 42 percent, respectively.
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Canadian researchers identify common cell
ancestor for blood and blood vessels
Endothelial-like cells in the lining of blood vessels
produce both blood and the vessels themselves, according to a
Canadian study published in the July issue of the journal
Immunity. Researchers at the University of Western Ontario
plan to continue studying these cells, as well as identifying
genes that affect the development and differentiation of these
cells.
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Thirteen stem cell lines available with
genetic mutations
Thirteen stem cell lines carrying mutations that cause
genetic diseases, such as Fragile X and Becker muscular
dystrophy, are now available for researchers studying inherited
diseases. The Reproductive Genetics Institute in Chicago
developed the lines from embryos created for in vitro
fertilization that were found to have the mutations.
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Japan council approves cloning of human embryos for research
Japanese researchers are now able to clone human embryos for
basic research purposes, after a vote by the Council for Science
and Technology Policy. Scientists must work for state-designated
research institutes and may not use the embryos to treat human
patients.
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Word from President Armand Keating, M.D.
Suppose for the past 17 years you slumbered
underground, occasionally eating tree roots, but having no
contact with the events of the world above. Then, this
summer, you emerge from your netherworld for several weeks
of frenzied mating.
That’s real life for the black, shrimp-size cicada. They
have emerged this summer to carpet trees, buildings, poles
and just about anything vertical across a large swath of
our continent, from the Atlantic seaboard to the Midwest.
Their noisy chorus is the serenade of the males attracting
mates for a life-long relationship. Unfortunately for
them, that life isn’t very long. As soon as they
accomplish their mission, the males cash out.
I wonder if the cicada have been at all astonished by the
changes in the world since they burrowed into the soil in
1987. That was the year when Ronald Reagan publicly
challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 22 percent on a
single day in October that would be known as “Black
Monday.” And 18-month-old Jessica McClure -- “Baby
Jessica” -- tumbled into an abandoned well in Midland,
Texas, and her internationally televised rescue took 58
hours. Prozac was approved for marketing by the FDA. The
Simpsons made their first TV appearance.
In our own rapidly developing field of medicine, 1987 was
no less frenetic than any other year.
• An article in the New England Journal of Medicine
showed potential benefits of autotransplants in relapsed
and refractory aggressive non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The
findings would become the basis for the landmark
prospective trial published eight years later by Thierry
Philip and his colleagues demonstrating a survival benefit
for similar patients after autotransplants, compared to
salvage chemotherapy, thereby establishing autotransplants
as the standard of care for those patients.
• In Pesaro, Italy, a study showed that some patients with
advanced homozygous beta thalassemia could be cured with
matched sibling transplants and demonstrated the
feasibility of performing the procedure in patients with
advanced hemoglobinopathies. Allotransplants offered a
feasible alternative to chronic chelation therapy, which
focused on managing iron overload, a complication of this
serious disorder.
• A study published in Blood reported that
recombinant GM-CSF accelerated neutrophil and platelet
recovery in an autologous transplant model in the rhesus
monkey. Today, the clinical use of this cytokine is
largely restricted to augmenting experimental
immunotherapy protocols. That was tough to predict in 1987
because of the subsequent switch to peripheral blood as
the source of stem cells and the development of the
non-toxic G-CSF cytokine, which eclipsed the promise of
GM-CSF.
• A Seattle group transplanted 30 patients with advanced
pre-leukemic syndromes and concluded that disease-free
survival can be prolonged in those without marrow
fibrosis. The role of allotransplants in myelodysplastic
syndromes has remained controversial, despite the
possibility of cure, because of associated morbidity and
treatment-related mortality. In fact, in our current year
of the cicada, 2004, an IBMTR decision analysis has
indicated that delayed transplantation for low-risk
disease is associated with improved outcome, suggesting
that timing of transplant is important.
To the relief of many people nearly crazed by the racket,
the songs of the cicada have largely subsided. The females
have laid their eggs in tree bark, and in the next week or
so the hatched nymphs will fall from the leaves and burrow
into the soil where, about a foot underground, they’ll
rest for the coming 17 years.
Makes to you wonder about the next time they join us. That
will be 2021. What will they see, and what marvelous
things will we know?
- Cheers, Armand |
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Legislation and Regulation |
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Transplanters encouraged to contact Senate about NMDP
re-authorization
ASBMT members are encouraged to contact the chair of the
Senate health committee about re-authorization of the National
Marrow Donor Program (NMDP). The authority for the registry
expired last year. The House of Representatives has passed a
re-authorization bill, but the measure remains stalled in the
Senate. “Without a strong push by transplant patients and
health professionals, the re-authorization may never reach a
vote before Congress adjourns,” said ASBMT leaders last week in
a broadcast e-mail to members of the Society.
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Clinical
Research |
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Fetal stem cells migrate to correct stroke damage in rats
Fetal stem cells injected into the brains of rats with an
induced stroke can migrate to damaged areas and differentiate
into neurons or astrocytes, according to scientists at Stanford
University School of Medicine. This study, published in the
advance online issue of the Proceedings of the National
Academies of Science, found that the fetal cells migrated as
much as 1.2 millimeters.
Timing of allogeneic stem cell transplant crucial to
survival of MDS patients
For patients with myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS), proper
timing of an allogeneic stem cell transplant could prove
critical to the duration of survival, according to a report
published in the July 15 issue of the journal Blood.
Researchers completed a multi-institutional study of more than
1,000 patients diagnosed with MDS and determined that patients
with low or low-intermediate risk benefit from delaying
transplantation, while those with high or high-intermediate risk
should receive a transplant immediately after diagnosis.
Autologous stem cell transplantation boosts survival in
children with Wilms’ tumor
In children suffering from a recurring Wilms’ tumor after
standard chemotherapy, autologous stem cell transplantation
provides long-term survival, according to a study published in
the July 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology.
Researchers from Northwestern University conducted a clinical
trial of 13 patients between 1 and 10 and found 52 percent
survival at the 30-month follow-up.
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Pharmaceutical News |
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Cell Bio-Systems applies for federal research grant
Cell Bio-Systems Inc. in San Diego has applied for a Medical
Device Research Grant to develop disposable technologies for
stem cell research, cosmetic surgery and other living tissue
procedures. The grant will help the company continue its
research, development and study work on new instruments.
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Association
News |
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Abstract submission opens today for 2005 Tandem BMT Meetings
Online submission opens today for abstracts for the 2005 Tandem
BMT Meetings. The combined annual meetings of ASBMT and the
Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR
– formerly the IBMTR/ABMTR) will be held Feb. 10-14 in Keystone,
Colo. About 60 of the submitted abstracts will be selected for
oral presentation. The abstract and Early Registration deadlines is Oct. 18.
Transplanters meet with payers to discuss reimbursement issues
An ASBMT delegation met with representatives of third-party
payers on July 22 to discuss treatment cost reimbursement in
clinical trials, the Society’s evidence-based reviews, the BMT
Clinical Trials Network, the standardized Request for
Information (RFI), and transplant center effects on outcomes of
care. The meeting in Chicago was organized by the United Network
for Organ Sharing (UNOS) and included representatives from 11
companies: Aetna, Blue Shield of Florida, Blue Quality Centers
for Transplant, Cigna LifeSource, First Health, Interlink,
Kaiser Permanente, LifeTrac, MultiPlan, PacificCare and
Wellpoint.
Further editorial expansion for BBMT
The size of monthly issues of Biology of Blood and Marrow
Transplantation will increase again next year. The total
number of editorial pages in 2004, not counting supplements, has
increased from 768 to 864. An additional expansion to 960 pages
next year has been authorized by the ASBMT Executive Committee.
“The continued expansion of the journal is a reflection of a
steady increase in the number of high-quality manuscripts we are
receiving,” said Robert Korngold, Ph.D., editor-in-chief. Growth
in revenues from advertising and reprints will fund the journal
expansion without additional costs charged to member dues.
BBMT features Bortin lecture on immunity, GvL and GvH
This month’s issue of Biology of Blood and Marrow
Transplantation presents an edited text of the Mortimer
Bortin Lecture that was presented at this year’s Tandem BMT
Meetings. Robert Truitt, Ph.D., of the Medical College of
Wisconsin spoke on “To Destroy by the Reaction of Immunity: The
Search for Separation of GvL and GvH.”
Prevention of late-onset CMV infection after transplantation
One of the remarkable success stories in the history of
hematopoietic stem cell transplantation has been the progress in
the control of cytomegalovirus infection during the months
immediately after transplant. Only recently, however, have
strategies been developed for late-onset CMV infection. These
advances are addressed in the current issue of Blood and
Marrow Transplantation Reviews.
4th Mesenchymal and Nonhematopietic Stem Cells 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, in New Orleans. ASBMT is a
co-sponsor.
Transplant contracting, cost containment and reimbursement
The 6th annual Conference on Transplant Contracting, Cost
Containment and Reimbursement is scheduled for Sept. 20-21 in
Chicago. The annual conference is co-sponsored by ASBMT and
produced by the Center for Business Intelligence. An agenda and
registration information -- including a discount of $400 for
ASBMT members -- are online.
Donor safety, ethics, clinical standards are on conference
agenda
Safety, risks, ethics and clinical standards for adult and
pediatric allogeneic donors of stem cells will be addressed
Sept. 21-22 in Arlington, Va. The conference is sponsored by the
NHLBI, with support from ASBMT.
CME audioconference offers update on stem cell therapy for
NHL
Dr. James Armitage will present recent data on therapies for
non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, focusing on when and how hematopoietic
cell transplantation is now integrated into management of the
disease. The one-hour live audioconference on Sept. 10 will
address patient selection, expected outcomes of autologous and
allogeneic transplantation, and the use of transplantation in
combination with other therapies. The program is sponsored by
the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP), Center for
International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research (CIBMTR) and
the Medical College of Wisconsin.
Deadline for Stem Cell Research Foundation grants is Oct. 19
Grant awards of up to $50,000 per year for two years are
available from the Stem Cell Research Foundation. The
application deadline is Oct. 19.
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