| |
|
May 2, 2005 |
| |
| If
you are unable to view these articles or access the links,
please visit the ASBMT Web Site at
www.asbmt.org to read this
issue. To be removed from this distribution list, please see
instructions at bottom. |
| |
 |
Top
Stories |
| |
|
|
|
Legislation and Regulation |
| |
|
|
|
Clinical
Research |
| |
|
|
|
Pharmaceutical News |
|
|
|
|
|
Association
News |
| |
|
|
|
Calendar |
| |
|
|
|
Job &
Fellowship Connections |
|
|
|
|
|
Monthly Journal |
|
|
|
|
|
eNews
Archives |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
BMT Tandem
Meetings
Feb. 16-20, 2006
Honolulu, Hawaii |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Calendar |
|
• May
Current Good Tissue Practice
Workshop preceding annual meeting of the International
Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT)
May 3-4
Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Center
Vancouver, British Columbia
International Society for Cellular Therapy (ISCT)
11th Annual Meeting
May 4-7
Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Center
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS)
5th Annual Conference
May 12-16
Westin Copley Place
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
Orange County Convention Center
Orlando, Florida
American Society of Transplantation (AST)
American Transplant Congress
May 20-25
Washington State Convention & Trade Center
Seattle, Washington
National Bone Marrow Transplant Link (nbmtLINK),
with support from ASBMT
“Ask the Experts” BMT Educational Forum
May 21
Lighthouse International Conference Center
New York, New York
• June
3rd Annual International Umbilical Cord Blood Transplant
Symposium
California Blood Bank Society (CBBS), with the National Marrow
Donor Program (NMDP)
June 3-4
Hilton Los Angeles Airport
Los Angeles, California
Chronic GvHD: The Next Frontier in Transplantation Research
NIH Consensus Development Project on Criteria for Clinical
Trials in Chronic Graft-vs.-Host Disease
June 6
Marriott Bethesda North Conference Center
Bethesda, Maryland
International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR)
3rd Annual Meeting
June 23-25
San Francisco Marriott
San Francisco, California
• July
Pan-Pacific Lymphoma Conference
University of Nebraska Medical Center
July 11-15
Hyatt Regency Kauai
Poipu, Hawaii
Society for Cryobiology
Cryo 2005, 42nd Meeting
July 24-27
University of Minnesota
Minneapolis, Minnesota
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
• October
American Association of Blood Banks (AABB)
58th Annual Meeting
Oct. 15-18
Seattle Convention Center
Seattle, Washington
Aplastic Anemia & MDS International Foundation
with NCI and NIH Office of Rare Diseases
Bone Marrow Failure Scientific Symposium
Oct. 17-19
Loews L’Enfant Plaza Hotel
Washington, D.C.
American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (ASHI)
31th Annual Meeting
Oct. 17-21
Hilton Washington Hotel
Washington, D.C.
International Society for Interferon and Cytokine Research (ISICR)
Annual Meeting
Oct. 20-24
Shanghai International Everbright Convention Center
Shanghai, China
International Cytokine Society (ICS)
Annual International Cytokine Conference
Oct. 27-31
Lotte Hotel Jamsil
Seoul, Korea
European Society of Gene Therapy (ESGT)
13th Annual Meeting
Oct. 29-Nov. 1
Hotel Hilton Prague
Prague, Czech Republic
• November
National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP)
18th Annual Council Meeting
Nov. 4-6
Minneapolis, Minnesota
• December
American Society of Hematology (ASH)
76th Annual Meeting
Dec. 3-6
Ernest N. Morial Convention Center
New Orleans, Louisiana
American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB)
45th Annual Meeting
Dec. 10-14
Moscone Center
San Francisco, California
2006
BMT Tandem Meetings
(Combined ASBMT and CIBMTR annual meetings)
Feb. 16-20
Hawaii Convention Center
Honolulu, Hawaii
2007
BMT Tandem Meetings
(Combined ASBMT and CIBMTR annual meetings)
Feb. 8-12
Keystone Conference Center
Keystone, Colorado
2008
BMT Tandem Meetings
(Combined ASBMT and CIBMTR annual meetings)
Feb. 13-17
Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel
San Diego, California
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
Top
Stories |
| |
Institute of Medicine report calls for national cord blood
policy board
The Institute of Medicine of the National Academies has
recommended that the U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services establish a National Cord Blood Policy Board to set
rules for the donation, collection and use of stem cells derived
from umbilical cord blood. The report, which was requested by
Congress, also says the department’s Health Resources and
Services Administration should call for proposals to identify a)
an organization that can serve as a coordinating center to
manage daily operations and b) an agency for accreditation of
cord blood banks.  |
|
|
|
Children treated for soft tissue sarcomas
have higher risk of developing second cancers
Being treated for soft tissue sarcomas places children at
increased risk for second cancers, especially if the initial
treatment is a combination of radiation and chemotherapy.
According to a report published in the advance online edition of
the journal Cancer, the relative risk of developing
second primary cancers in the first five years of follow-up was
about 12 times higher than expected. |
| |
Harvard Stem Cell Institute awards first seed grants
The Harvard Stem Cell Institute has selected 12 scientists
to receive two-year, $150,000 grants supporting research aimed
at advancing the understanding of stem cell biology and
developing new therapeutic approaches to several diseases. Five
of the 12 projects will involve human embryonic stem cells.
|
| |
FDA’s good tissue practice rule to become
effective May 25
The FDA’s "Current Good Tissue Practice for Human Cell,
Tissue, and Cellular and Tissue-Based Product Establishments;
Inspection and Enforcement” rule will become effective May 25.
This third rule follows "Establishment Registration and Listing
for Manufacturers of Human Cellular and Tissue-Based Products,"
and the second rule, "Suitability Determination for Donors of
Human Cellular and Tissue-Based Products."
|
|
|
|
 A
Word from President Nelson Chao, M.D.
Suspended animation, the stuff of science fiction, could
also become the stuff of transplantation.
Our friends at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in
Seattle made news this past month when they announced that
they had induced a state of reversible metabolic
hibernation in mice. Their demonstration of “hibernation
on demand” in a mammal could lead to new ways to prevent
injury and death from insufficient blood supply to organs
and tissues, as well as to possible new strategies for
treating cancer.
What the research team did was temporarily convert mice
from warm-blooded to cold-blooded creatures -- the same
thing that happens naturally when mammals hibernate. They
exposed the mice to a non-lethal concentration of the
normally toxic gas hydrogen sulfide, causing the mice’s
oxygen consumption to fall by half in just five minutes.
Over the course of six hours, their metabolic rates were
slowed by 90 percent, and body temperatures dropped to
just a few degrees above room temperature. When returned
to normal air and temperature, the mice recovered in two
hours and were said to exhibit no abnormal side effects.
During hibernation, cellular activity slows to a near
standstill, which reduces dramatically an organism’s need
for oxygen. If such temporary metabolic inactivity can be
replicated in humans, it could help buy time for
critically ill patients in operating rooms, in ERs, on
battlefields and in need of transplantation.
The concept has potential for improving cancer therapies,
allowing patients to tolerate higher radiation doses
without damaging healthy tissue. By temporarily reducing
oxygen dependence in healthy cells, the non-cancerous
tissues might become a less-vulnerable target for
radiation and chemotherapy.
The idea of putting a human or a human organ into a
hypo-oxygen state and then reversing the process at will
with no ill effects may sound like wishful thinking, yet
there are dozens of documented cases of people who have
seemed to have frozen to death, only to be revived with no
lingering physical or neurological damage.
I wonder, though, if the investigators are thinking in
large enough terms when they suggest uses of hibernation
for medical therapies. Human hibernation may offer other
intriguing possibilities:
• Parental hibernation during the years when their
children are between the ages of 13 and 20.
• Retiree hibernation if retirement age is reached during
an economic recession -- with instructions left for
reanimation when market indicators are pointing up.
• Taxpayer hibernation when April 15 approaches and a
large payment is due to the Internal Revenue Service. Which raises an interesting public policy question of
whether earnings should be tax-deferred during a period of
hibernation.
On another
topic, the awaited
report on cord blood banking was released in mid-April
by the Institute of Medicine (IOM).
Nearly 300 pages, the report to the Health Resources and
Services Administration (HRSA) provides a comprehensive
review of the state of cord blood banking and offers
recommendations for enhancing the collection, banking and
distribution of cord blood.
As told here last month, ASBMT has adopted
10 principles for a national, and preferably an
international, registry of cord blood units. The Society
believes that patients and transplant clinicians can best
be served by a centralized registry that provides a
seamless, economical means for finding and obtaining
matched donor cells.
I’m pleased to tell you that the IOM recommendations
appear to conform to all 10 of the ASBMT-adopted
principles. We will continue to watch developments as HRSA
moves to develop policy in response to the IOM
recommendations. You can be assured that the Society will
act if events stray outside of the framework that has been
proposed in the IOM report and outlined in our 10
principles.
– Nelson |
|
|
|
|
Legislation and Regulation |
Massachusetts Senate approves stem cell research bill by
wide margin
The Massachusetts Senate has approved a stem cell research
bill with a 34-2 vote, sending it on to the House. With this
level of support, the Senate could easily override a veto by the
governor. The bill would allow scientists to create cloned
embryos and extract their stem cells for research.
|
|
|
|
Clinical
Research |
| |
Stem cell transplantation restores sight in patients with
impaired corneas
British scientists have restored sight in more than a dozen
patients with impaired corneas by transplanting human stem cells
grown in the laboratory onto their eyes. Scientists developed
the stem cells into sheets, then used an amniotic membrane to
hold them in place on the surface of the eye. Tests on the
patients after a year revealed no trace of the DNA of the stem
cell donor.
Japanese women more likely to be cured of breast cancer
Women of Japanese descent with early-stage breast cancer
that are treated with a lumpectomy and radiation therapy are
more likely to be cured than women of other ancestries.
According to a report published in the May 1 issue of the
International Journal of Radiation Oncology*Biology*Physics,
only 0.67 percent of women in the study experienced a local
recurrence in the first six years after treatment; 74 percent of
the women studied were of Japanese heritage.
Certain hormone replacement therapies increase risk of
endometrial cancer
Estrogen-only or tibolone hormone replacement therapy
increase the risk of endometrial cancer, according to a report
in the April 30 issue of the journal The Lancet. British
researchers studied 700,000 women between the ages of 50 and 64.
By the end of the study, 1,320 endometrial cancers were
diagnosed.
|
| |
|
Pharmaceutical News |
| |
Phase I clinical trials of cancer drug candidate to begin
Cytopia, an Australian biotech company, has received
approval to begin experiments with drug candidate CYT997 on 30
patients with advanced incurable tumors. The synthetic drug
significantly inhibited primary tumor growth of experimentally
grafted human and mice cancer cells without adverse effects. The
Phase I study will be non-blinded, and patients will receive
intravenous infusions once every three weeks. |
| |
|
Association
News |
|
|
|
New definition proposed for ‘stem cell transplantation’ under
Medicare
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is seeking
public comment on a new definition for “stem cell
transplantation” in its National Coverage Determination Manual.
The new wording would clarify that stem cell transplant and
high-dose chemotherapy “are both integral to the course of
treatment and covered as a single entity.” Comments are being
accepted through May 20.
NIH to host consensus conference on cGvHD clinical trials
A one-day consensus development conference will bring
together clinical researchers, industry, academia, patients and
government agencies to discuss criteria for clinical trials in
chronic graft-vs.-host disease. The conference, scheduled for
June 6 in Bethesda, Md., will be the culmination of a year-long
effort by the hematology-oncology transplantation community and
related medical subspecialties to create guidelines that allow
rapid conduct of clinical trials in chronic GvHD.
BBMT explores immunobiology of human mesenchymal cells
Mesenchymal stem cells may be derived from adult bone
marrow, fat and several fetal tissues. In vitro, they can
be expanded and have the capacity to differentiate into several
mesenchymal tissues, such as bone, cartilage and fat. Drs.
Katarina Le Blanc and Olle Ringdén of Karolinska University
Hospital in Stockholm review potential uses of mesenchymal stem
cells in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in this month’s
issue of Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation.
Meeting with CBER will address cellular therapies
Representatives of ASBMT and other organizations in
allogeneic transplantation, gene therapy, tissue banking,
apheresis and biotechnology will meet with the FDA Center for
Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) on June 24 in Bethesda.
Part of an ongoing series of twice-per-year meetings, recent
sessions have addressed regulatory strategy for biological
combination products and the regulatory distinction between and
approaches to homologous vs. non-homologous therapies.
Audiocassettes available for Keystone presentations
Plenary and concurrent scientific sessions, workshops and
oral abstracts from the Tandem BMT Meetings are available on
audiocassette – along with the recorded conferences of the
transplant nurses, BMT pharmacists, clinical research associates
and BMT center administrators. The programs can be purchased
online.
Tandem BMT Meetings abstracts can be viewed online
Abstracts submitted by investigators in 33 countries were
presented at the Tandem BMT Meetings in Keystone, Colo. All
abstracts are published in the February 2005 issue of Biology
of Blood and Marrow Transplantation (Vol. 11, No. 2,
Supplement 1), and also are posted and searchable online.
Free ASBMT membership for trainees
Post-doctoral fellows and physicians-in-training for blood
and marrow transplantation are eligible for free ASBMT
membership. The annual dues are being waived for trainees who
apply for membership in the Society, a program made possible by
a grant from ESP Pharma. |
|
