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November
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
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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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Nuclear Terrorism
In your opinion, what's the likelihood of a nuclear terrorist attack in
North America in the next 10 years? |
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(Note: Your answers to this interactive poll are anonymous.)
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Last
Month's Poll Results |
ASBMT leaders are considering public
policy positions on topics such as embryonic stem
cell research and storage of stem cells by healthy
adults for themselves and their children.
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62% of responding readers agreed that
the Society should be an aggressive advocate in
all areas affecting the interests of hematopoietic
stem cell transplant clinicians, investigators and
patients. |
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38% agreed that the Society should
limit its advocacy to matters directly related to
its core mission: promoting rapid dissemination of
basic and clinical research, advancing BMT
practice, and maintaining high standards of
patient care. |
No one agreed that the Society should avoid
matters of public policy, strictly confining its
energies and resources to scientific advancement
through scholarly publication and scientific
meetings. |
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Calendar |
• November
European Society of Gene Therapy (ESGT)
12th Annual Meeting
Nov. 4-7
Tampere Hall Congress Center
Tampere, Finland
• December
American Society of Hematology (ASH)
46th Annual Meeting
Dec. 4-7
San Diego Convention Center
San Diego, California
American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB)
44th Annual Meeting
Dec. 4-8
Washington Convention Center
Washington, D.C.
2005
• January
Stem Cell Transplantation in Children: Current Results
and Controversies
Alfred I. duPont Hospital for Children and
Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
Jan. 20-22
DoubleTree La Posada
Scottsdale, Arizona
• February
Tandem BMT Meetings
(Combined ASBMT and CIBMTR annual meetings)
Feb. 10-14
Keystone Conference Center
Keystone, Colorado
• March
American Society of Transplantation (AST)
and Canadian Society of Transplantation (CST)
9th Annual Winter Symposium
March 16-20
Fairmont Banff Springs
Banff, Alberta
European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT)
31st Annual Meeting
March 20 – 23
Prague Congress Centre
Prague, Czech Republic
• April
American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
96th Annual Meeting
April 16-20
Anaheim Convention Center
Anaheim, California
American Society for Apheresis
26th Annual Meeting
April 27-30
Hyatt Regency Chicago
Chicago, Illinois
• May
International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT)
11th Annual Meeting
May 4-7
Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Center
Vancouver, British Columbia
Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS)
5th Annual Conference
May 12-16
Boston, Massachusetts
American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology (ASPH/O)
18th Annual Meeting
May 14-16
Renaissance Washington D.C. Hotel
Washington, D.C.
American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO)
41st Annual Meeting
May 14-17
Orlando, Florida
American Society of Transplantation (AST)
American Transplant Congress
May 20-25
Seattle, Washington
• June
International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR)
3rd Annual Meting
June 23-25
San Francisco Marriott
San Francisco, California
• July
Aplastic Anemia & MDS International Foundation
(AA&MDSIF)
Patient & Family Conference
July 28-30
Denver Airport Marriott
Aurora, Colorado
International Society for Experimental Hematology (ISEH)
34th Annual Scientific Meeting
July 30-Aug. 2
Glasgow, Scotland
2006
Tandem BMT Meetings
(Combined ASBMT and CIBMTR annual meetings)
Feb. 15-19
Hawaii Convention Center
Honolulu, Hawaii
2007
Tandem BMT Meetings
(Combined ASBMT and CIBMTR annual meetings)
Feb. 8-12
Keystone Conference Center
Keystone, Colorado
2008
Tandem BMT Meetings
(Combined ASBMT and CIBMTR annual meetings)
Feb. 13-17
Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel
San Diego, California
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Top
Stories |
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Infant immune systems can learn to accept incompatible heart
transplants
Infant immune systems can reprogram themselves to accept
transplants from donors of different blood types, according to a
study published in the November issue of the journal Nature
Medicine. At the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, 20
infants up to age 14 months with ABO incompatibility learned to
accept incompatible heart transplants, although they still
required immunosuppressant drugs.
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Researchers identify a protein that makes
cancer cells more aggressive
High levels of a protein called LRP6 can make cancer cells
more aggressive, according to an advance online study to be
published in the journal Oncogene. Researchers at
Washington University say the protein's ability to enhance tumor
development suggests that the gene that codes for LRP6 is an
oncogene.
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Neurology community announces support for
government funding of stem cell research
The American Academy of Neurology and the American
Neurological Association have publicly announced their support
for government funding of adult and embryonic stem cell
research. “As scientists and healers, we have a strong moral and
ethical obligation to pursue research that may result in
beneficial treatments for diseases that are among the most
debilitating and costly in human society," said Sandra F. Olson,
M.D., president of the AAN.
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Cancer survivors report poorer quality of life
Cancer survivors have a poorer quality of life and poorer
health outcomes than do similar control subjects without cancer,
according to a study published in the Journal of the National
Cancer Institute. In this study of more than 1,800 cancer
survivors, they reported higher levels of lost productivity and
were more likely to report their health as fair or poor when
compared with age-, sex-, and educational-attainment matched
control subjects.
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Word from President Armand Keating, M.D.
Can you think of a major issue on which both George
Bush and John Kerry agree?
Iraq? Tax cuts? Job creation? Health care? Education? Not
much agreement there.
But there is one that hasn’t earned much media attention,
probably because both candidates agree. Newsweek
magazine identified it right after the Presidential debate
on national security:
“Even Jim Lehrer, the moderator, seemed a bit
surprised. He twice asked the candidates: both of you
really believe this is the ‘single most serious threat’ to
America? Nuclear proliferation is, after all, a classic
wonk’s issue. But George W. Bush and John Kerry agreed on
this and little else in their debate last week: the spread
of nuclear fissile material, equipment and know-how is
their top national-security priority. And American’s No. 1
nightmare is that proliferation may yield a nuclear device
detonation by terrorists in a U.S. city.”
Concerns about global nuclear war, less likely than in the
past, have been replaced by the real potential of a
terrorist strike using radiological weapons. It’s known
that a lot of nuclear material is missing in this world,
and these materials could possibility enter the black
market where they’d be acquired by terrorists. We’ve been
told of a couple scenarios:
• The so-called “dirty bomb” that would use conventional
explosives with low levels of radioactive materials. The
injury and damage to property would be limited. The
primary purpose would be psychological terror.
• More frightening is the detonation of a true nuclear
device, the “nuclear suitcase bomb.” Injuries and
destruction would be catastrophic.
There’s also the concern about a terrorist attack on a
nuclear power plant, either to expose the core reactor or,
an easier target, a pool of spent nuclear fuel. The
atmospheric plume of radiation could have immediate health
effects nearby and long-term effects for those at great
distances.
More than a few experts believe that one of these attacks,
somewhere, is likely.
In any of these scenarios, immediate help for survivors
would be given by emergency responders and intensive care
and burn centers. After the first triage for traumatic and
medical emergencies, there would be a sorting out of
victims who have little trauma but significant exposure to
radiation from the initial blast or from fall out. These
are the people who, with medical support, could be saved
because their radiation dose was limited by shielding or
distance from the blast. They’d have to be transported to
locations of tertiary care.
But where? We have no network of stand-by radiation
sickness centers. Most physicians and other health-care
personnel are unfamiliar with medical treatment of
radiological casualties. There would be a scramble to find
health professionals with relevant training or experience.
So what kinds of physicians would be sought?
• Those who have experience with the toxic effects of
ionizing radiation on the whole body.
• Those familiar with reduced lymphocyte counts and with
resultant immunosuppression.
• Those who know about leukopenia, thrombocytopenia and
bone marrow depression.
• Those who can provide hematopoietic support.
• Those who are comfortable with broad-spectrum
antibiotics and anti-fungals.
• Those familiar with CSFs that induce bone marrow
progenitor cells to proliferate and differentiate into
mature blood cell types.
• Those who can accomplish allogeneic stem cell
transplantation to re-establish hematopoiesis.
• Those with credible expertise to communicate health
risks to victims, emergency responders and the general
population.
Sound like any group of physicians you know?
I can’t take credit for these insights or these questions.
They are the product of a lot of thinking and analysis by
Nelson Chao, M.D., who will be next year’s ASBMT
president.
At a meeting of our Executive Committee last month, he
asked and got approval to give these difficult issues some
attention during his year as president. We’ll be looking
at nuclear emergency preparedness, examining issues such
as emergency planning, command and control, communications
systems, resource availability and public information.
There’s no doubt that psychological and behavioral
responses could be as important and challenging as
treatment of radiation-related injuries and illnesses.
The objective of all this is for you, our members, not to
be caught unprepared if the unthinkable -- but hardly
impossible -- were to happen. Rather important stuff for
us to consider and for our Board of Directors to
contemplate when it meets next month in San Diego.
The members of the Executive Committee and I told Nelson
that we are lined up squarely behind him.
- Armand |
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Clinical
Research |
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AMA provides initial guidance on centralized clinical
trials registry
Last month, the American Medical Association released to
Congress its initial guidance on establishing a centralized
clinical trials registry, designed to gather information on all
drugs, biologics, medical devices and medical interventions into
one database. AMA hopes the database will prevent duplication of
research efforts and wants it to be accessible to the public so
patients have the opportunity to participate in clinical trials.
Rituximab may improve survival in patients with
non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
Use of rituximab after autologous stem cell transplantation
increases remission in patients with follicular and mantle cell
non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, according to a study published in the
November issue of the journal Annals of Oncology. German
researchers conducted a clinical trial involving 31 patients and
discovered that 72 percent of patients also receiving rituximab
had no detectable cancer cells, compared with 53 percent with
the transplant alone.
Human retinal cells differentiate into retinal cells in
mice
Human retinal stem cells transplanted into the eyes of baby
mice survive, migrate, integrate, and differentiate into the
neural retina, according to a report published online in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The
majority of the eye stem cells, taken from people from newborns
into their 70s, were discovered in the photoreceptor layer of
the retina.
Certain diseases may affect success of stem cell
transplants
In mice with Alzheimer’s disease, signals from existing
brain cells may confuse the movement of implanted neuronal stem
cells. In these mice, olfactory stem cells were attracted to
amyloid plaques, rather than returning to the olfactory bulb as
they do in normal adult mice. This finding indicates that
disease can create “microenvironments” that affect cell
behavior.
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Pharmaceutical News |
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Companies sign agreement to market embryonic stem cell
culture medium
Thromb-X N.V. in Leuven, Belgium, and Chemicon International
in Temecula, Calif., have signed an exclusive global agreement
to market embryonic stem cell reagents developed by Thromb-X.
Through this agreement, Chemicon will make available the TX-WES
culture medium to the worldwide mouse embryonic stem cell
community.
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Association
News |
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Record early registration and abstracts for 2005 Tandem BMT
Meetings
The records set at this year’s Tandem BMT Meetings in Orlando
aren’t likely to stand for more than a year. The deadlines for
early registration and abstract submission were Oct. 18 for the
upcoming meetings, which are scheduled for Feb. 10-14 in
Keystone, Colo. As of the deadlines: Abstract submissions were
up 11%, and early registrations up 16%, compared to a year ago.
Registration and housing information are online.
BMT administrators finalize their agenda for Keystone
Contracting, risk management, strategic alliances, marketing,
disclosure, staffing models and resources for under-insured
patients -- these are among the topics that will be on the
agenda for the BMT center administrators when they meet Feb.
11-12, a conference that parallels the Tandem BMT Meetings in
Keystone, Colo.
FACT workshops scheduled for Tandem BMT Meetings
The Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapy (FACT)
will be conducting two workshops on Feb. 9, the day before the
opening of the 2005 Tandem BMT Meetings. The workshops will be
“Preparing Your Facility for FACT Inspection” and “FACT
Inspector Training.”
Hurricanes, power outages, disease pandemic -- are you prepared?
ASBMT leaders are assembling an ad hoc Committee on Emergency
Preparedness to draw up guidelines for transplant centers to
prepare for localized emergencies. The chair will be ASBMT Past
President John Wingard, M.D., who, based in Florida, has recent
firsthand experience coping with the unexpected as three
hurricanes have swept the state this season. If you have
experience or expertise to offer, he would like to hear from
you.
NIH to designate three centers for regenerative medicine
research
The NIH has announced plans to designate three
multi-disciplinary "centers of excellence" for accelerating
translational research in regenerative medicine using human stem
and progenitor cells. Funding will be up to $1.5 million per
year per center for four years. The application deadline is
March 24, 2005.
Free ASBMT membership for trainees
Post-doctoral fellows and physicians-in-training for blood and
marrow transplantation are eligible for free membership in the
American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation. During
the months of November and December, the annual dues will be
waived for new trainees who apply for membership in the Society.
Young investigators are eligible for $1,000 honoraria for review
articles
Young investigators -- those not more than five years past a
doctoral degree -- are eligible for $1,000 honoraria for
preparing review articles for Biology of Blood and Marrow
Transplantation. Young investigators frequently team up with
a senior investigator when preparing a manuscript. For more
information, contact Robertson Parkman, M.D., scientific reviews
editor for the journal.
Dues statements mailed in mid-October
Statements for 2005 dues were mailed in mid-October to ASBMT
members who had not yet renewed their membership by credit card.
Dues for the coming year have been reduced by $50 in the Member,
Associate Member and Affiliate Member categories.
Transplants vs. low-dose therapy in NHL is topic of online CME
program
James Armitage, M.D., presents recent data on non-Hodgkin’s
lymphoma, focusing on clinical evidence that compares the
outcomes of hematopoietic cell transplant to other therapies.
The online program provides information on patient selection,
expected outcomes of autologous and allogeneic transplantation,
and the pros and cons of each choice in comparison to other
therapies.
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