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December
1, 2005 |
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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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BMT Tandem
Meetings
Feb. 16-20, 2006
Honolulu, Hawaii |
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message at right, President Nelson Chao lists five things that he would
like medical colleagues outside of BMT to know. Do you have any
additional things to add to his list? |
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CLICK TO RESPOND |
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Calendar |
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• December
American Society of Hematology (ASH)
47th Annual Meeting
Dec. 10-13
Georgia World Congress Center
Atlanta, Georgia
American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB)
45th Annual Meeting
Dec. 10-14
Moscone Center
San Francisco, California
2006
• January
New Developments in the Epidemiology of Cancer Prognosis:
Traditional and Molecular Predictors of Treatment Response and
Survival
American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
Jan. 11-15
Charleston Place
Charleston, South Carolina
Ubiquitin and Cancer: From Molecular Targets and Mechanisms
to the Clinic
American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
Jan. 18-22
Disney’s Contemporary Resort
Lake Buena Vista, Florida
Drugging the Cancer Genome: Developing Rational Combination
Therapies for Multigene Cancers
American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
Jan. 25-29
Marriott Rancho Las Palmas Resort & Spa
Rancho Mirage, California
• February
Conference on Molecular Basis for Targeted Therapy for
Leukemia
American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
and European School of Haematology (ESH)
Feb. 2-6
Cascais, Portugal
BMT Tandem Meetings
(Combined ASBMT and CIBMTR annual meetings)
Feb. 16-20
Hawaii Convention Center
Honolulu, Hawaii
2nd Advances Against Aspergillosis Conference
Feb. 22-25
Hilton Athens
Athens, Greece
• March
Cancer Susceptibility and Cancer Susceptibility Syndromes
American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
March 1-5
Sheraton Maui
Maui, Hawaii
Frontiers of Immune Suppression
American Society of Transplantation (AST)
10th Annual Winter Symposium
March 16-19
Westin Resort & Spa Cancun
Cancun, Mexico
European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT)
32nd Annual Meeting
March 19-22
Congress Centrum Hamburg
Hamburg, Germany
• April
American Association for Cancer Research (AACR)
97th Annual Meeting
April 1-5
Washington Convention Center
Washington, D.C.
American Society of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology (ASPH/O)
19th Annual Meeting
April 28-May 1
San Francisco, California
• May
American Society for Apheresis (AAS)
27th Annual Meeting
May 23-26
Venetian Resort Hotel
Las Vegas, Nevada
• June
Federation of Clinical Immunology Societies (FOCIS)
6th Annual Conference
June 1-5
San Francisco Marriott
San Francisco, California
American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO)
42nd Annual Meeting
June 3-6
Georgia World Congress Center
Atlanta, Georgia
International Society for Stem Cell Research (ISSCR)
4th Annual Meetings
June 29-July 1
Metro Toronto Convention Center
Toronto, Ontario
• July
World Transplant Congress 2006
American Society of Transplant Surgeons (ASTS)
and the American Society of Transplantation (AST)
July 22-27
Hynes Convention Center
Boston, Massachusetts
Society for Cryobiology
Cryo 2006: 43nd Meeting
July 24-27
Hamburg Chamber of Commerce
Hamburg, Germany
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September
German Society for Transfusion Medicine and Immunohematology
(DGTI)
in collaboration with the International Society for Cellular
Therapy-Europe (ISCT-Europe)
39th Annual Congress
Sept. 19-22
Congress Centre Messe
Frankfurt, Germany
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
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Top
Stories |
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Spinal cord paralysis to be treated with patients' stem cells
Scientists at University College London plan to use stem
cells harvested from patients' own nasal cavities to treat
spinal cord paralysis. This program, based on 40 years of
research in animals, will involve at least 10 patients treated
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Doctors need to help cancer patients quit
smoking
Without help to quit smoking, up to 50 percent of patients
with cancer either continue to smoke after their diagnosis or
stop smoking for only a short time, says Ellen Gritz, chairwoman
of the Department of Behavioral Science at the University of
Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. In addition, to better assess
the negative effects of smoking on the results of clinical
trials for new cancer drugs, researchers should collect data on
tobacco use before beginning clinical trials.
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Cloning pioneer admits to accepting ova from
junior researchers
Hwang Woo-Suk, a South Korean researcher who produced the
first stem cells from a cloned human embryo in February 2004,
admitted to lying to cover up the fact that some of his junior
researchers had donated ova for the cloning. Hwang stepped down
from his position as chairman of the World Stem Cell Hub, and
South Korea’s presidential advisory panel on bioethics has
announced plans to carry out an ethical review of Hwang’s stem
cell research.
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Word from President Nelson Chao, M.D.
I’ve been thinking about our medical colleagues outside
of BMT. Suppose, with the passing of some magic wand, they
all instantly became aware of one thing that we within the
BMT field know. What would I want that one thing to be?
What single piece of information or bit of knowledge would
be most beneficial to our field if it were known and
understood by all referring physicians and others?
I recently was asked that question, and I found that it’s
hard to narrow the list to just one thing. There is much
that we know about our therapies, our patients and our
field that most outside of BMT don’t realize or fully
appreciate.
So I pleaded permission to widen my answer from just one
to a list of four or five things that I would like the
larger healthcare community to know. Here is what I came
up with — not in any particular order.
● I’d want everyone in the health field to know that BMT
teams have the most wonderful, dedicated medical and
support staff. Our small corner of medicine is populated
by people who are highly trained, incredibly committed to
their patients, and trying with all their might to achieve
the very best treatment outcomes.
● I’d want all to know how rapidly we are pushing back the
boundaries of our knowledge. We are finding new ways to
decrease toxicity, improve disease control, increase the
donor pool, prevent GvHD and apply our therapies for an
ever-growing number of diseases.
● I would want our medical and healthcare colleagues to
know that rapid development in our field does not mean
that we are not careful, measured and in control of these
advancements. Sometimes the concept of rapid development
connotes undisciplined experimentation. Our Phase I
clinical trials lead to new therapies, but always with
intense oversight at each of our institutions and
oversight by our larger group of colleagues. We are very
good at managing clinical trials.
● I’d want our colleagues to know that we treat a very
courageous group of patients who have a tremendous stake
in our progress and who have helped in innumerable ways
the advancements we have made. It is largely because of a
partnership with our patients that outcomes are ever
improving, toxicities dramatically decreasing and disease
indications expanding.
● I would like our medical colleagues to know that all
we’ve accomplished to date is only the beginning. We know
that the golden age of blood and marrow transplantation is
still ahead of us. The concept of tissue regeneration
using bone marrow or other stem cells is one of the great
promises for the future of medicine. How exciting it must
be for young investigators and clinicians to know that
they are part of a field that will be using cells to treat
heart disease, vascular disease, diabetes, stroke, spinal
cord injury, Parkinson’s disease and ... well, the list
goes on and on.
Have I touched on the things that you’d want your
colleagues outside of BMT to know? If you have something
else that you’d place high on the list, don’t hesitate to
use the interactive reader poll in the left-hand column to
tell us your thoughts.
Instead of wishing this awareness on our colleagues, maybe
we should find creative ways to educate referring
physicians, as well as the public at large, about the
progress that we have made and the potential we see for
alleviating suffering and curing disease.
– Nelson |
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Clinical Research |
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Molecule discovered that stimulates prostate tumor
formation
A molecule called Ack1 stimulates prostate tumor formation
by signaling prostate cells to rid themselves of a
tumor-suppressor protein, according to a report published in the
Nov. 15 issue of the journal Cancer Research. As a
result, researchers now are focusing on an experimental drug
that would inhibit Ack1 activity.
Ovarian cancer clinical trial under way at Yale
A Phase Ib/IIa clinical trial now under way at the Yale
School of Medicine will focus on a combination of phenoxodiol
and docetaxel to treat women with recurrent ovarian cancer. The
study will involve 60 women given docetaxel by injection weekly,
with half given oral phenoxodiol daily and the other half given
a placebo.
Radiation and chemotherapy improve liver cancer survival
A combination of highly targeted radiation and high-dose
chemotherapy shows promise in providing an alternative to
surgery to treat liver cancer. According to a report published
in the Dec. 1 issue of the Journal of Clinical Oncology,
median survival after this treatment was 15.8 months, with less
than a third of patients suffering sever complications from the
treatment.
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Pharmaceutical News |
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GSK putting four cancer drugs into final-stage clinical
trials
GlaxoSmithKline plans to put four new cancer drugs into
final-stage clinical trials in 2006. The products are Tykerb
(formerly called lapatinib) for oral cancer, eltrombopag for
low platelet levels in the blood, casopitant for nausea, and
pazopanib to prevent tumor growth. |
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Association
News |
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WMDA and BMDW register 10 millionth donor
The World Marrow Donor Association (WMDA) and Bone Marrow
Donors Worldwide (BMDW) celebrated the registration of their 10
millionth donor this past month. The BMDW is a voluntary
collaboration among stem cell donor registries and cord blood
banks to provide easy access to centralized information on HLA
phenotypes and other relevant data of unrelated stem cell donors
and cord blood units.
Symposium at ASH will tell of transplants in older patients
A symposium on “Transplantation for the Older Patient: More
Choices for Improving Outcomes” will be presented at the
American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting, Dec. 9, in
Atlanta. Part of the “Corporate Friday” programs, the symposium
is being organized by the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP)
and the Medical College of Wisconsin. It will present recent
outcomes data and provide practical considerations for
evaluating and treating older patients who may benefit from
transplantation.
Journal series examines diagnosis, staging of chronic GvHD
Criteria in current use for the diagnosis and staging of
chronic GvHD were introduced 25 years ago. The development of
new criteria is the purpose of an NIH consensus project and a
conference that was held this past summer. A report from a
conference working committee on cGvHD diagnosis and staging
appears in the December issue of Biology of Blood and Marrow
Transplantation. Over the coming five months, the journal
will present one report per issue from other working committees
that addressed histopathology, biomarkers, response criteria,
supportive care and design of clinical trials.
Survey will try to identify ‘serious’ GvHD
A team that is organizing a workshop on the definition of
“serious” GvHD, scheduled for presentation at the 2006 BMT
Tandem Meetings in Honolulu, is seeking help from ASBMT members
and others willing to participate in an online survey. Included
are brief case histories in which respondents are asked to
identify the point at which the disease crosses the “serious”
threshold. Information about the survey and how to participate
are online.
Gluckman selected to present Thomas Lecture
The first allogeneic umbilical cord blood transplant was
successfully performed in 1988 in Paris to treat a child with
Fanconi anaemia. The donor was his HLA-identical sister. The
clinician who performed that transplant, Dr. Eliane Gluckman,
will present the E. Donnall Thomas Lecture on Saturday, Feb. 18,
at the 2006 BMT Tandem Meetings in Honolulu. She will speak on
“Current Results and Future Promise of Cord Blood Transplant.”
Record number of abstracts accepted for Hawaii meeting
Review committees have accepted 510 abstracts for the 2006
BMT Tandem Meetings that will be held Feb. 16-20, in Honolulu —
a 56 percent increase over the record 325 that were accepted for
this year’s meeting in Keystone, Colo. Visit the ASBMT Web site
for online registration and housing reservations.
Nurses, pharmacists, administrators prepare for Honolulu
Preliminary agenda are online for parallel conferences that
will be held in February in Honolulu: Transplant Nurses (Feb.
18-20), BMT Pharmacists (Feb. 15-17), BMT Center Administrators
(Feb. 17-18), and Clinical Research Professionals Data
Management (Feb. 15-17).
Tours and vacation packages offered for Hawaii
Professional help is available for arranging tours and pre-
and post-meeting vacation packages. Scenic and historic island
tours, Diamond Head hike, helicopter flights, Atlantis
submarine, whale watching, and Polynesian shows are among the
many choices. Peruse the possibilities online.
New era for preparative regimens
New conditioning regimens are the topic of the latest issue
of Blood and Marrow Transplantation Reviews, mailed last
month to 10,500 hematologists and oncologists. “Much of this
renewed interest (in conditioning regimens) has come about
because of fundamental changes in concepts of how allogeneic HCT
cures cancer: less about the brute force of intensive cytotoxic
bludgeoning of cancer cells and more about facilitating
immunotherapy,” writes Dr. John Wingard, editor, in an
introduction to the issue. A CME assessment test is included.
New investigators eligible for $5,000 editorial awards
Each year, ASBMT presents two editorial awards to new
investigators published in Biology of Blood and Marrow
Transplantation, the Society’s monthly peer-reviewed
journal. The awards recognize the best basic science and the
best clinical research articles.
Free ASBMT membership for trainees
Postdoctoral fellows and physicians-in-training for blood
and marrow transplantation are eligible for free membership in
the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation.
Annual dues are waived for new trainees who apply for membership
in the Society.
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