CONGRESS NEWS

Highlights of the EHA

11 – 14 June 2015, Vienna, Austria
 

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2015 was an important year for the EHA, celebrating its 20^th anniversary, presenting ‘innovation in haematology’ as the theme of the year and welcoming almost 10.000 participants. Innovations were observed in many different diseases and selected major breakthroughs are summarised below.

(BELG J HEMATOL 2015;6(4): 169–72)

Highlights of the 13 International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma

17 – 20 June 2015, Lugano, Switzerland
 

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A lot of interesting data were presented at the 13^th International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma in Lugano, Switzerland. The authors summarise below those presentations/abstracts they found relevant for daily practice, either now or in the near future.

(BELG J HEMATOL 2015;6(4): 173–8)

Monitoring deep response in chronic myeloid leukaemia: new methodologies and innovative technologies

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Patients with chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) can rely on a wide spectrum of therapeutic opportunities. Optimal use of these opportunities ensures an excellent clinical outcome for patients and opens the gate for treatment-free remission (TFR). To accomplish this, however, proper integration of clinical and laboratory monitoring of CML patients is fundamental. As such, molecular response (MR) monitoring of patients at defined time points has emerged as a critical success factor for optimal disease management. Deeper MRs are associated with improved long-term survival outcomes and, more importantly, they are considered a gateway to TFR. During an educational session at the 2015 annual EHA meeting, Dr Simona Soverini, MD, PhD (University of Bologna, Italy), gave a critical overview on both the importance of monitoring deep responses to TKIs in CML patients and innovative technologies allowing for sensitive BCR-ABL1 detection.

(BELG J HEMATOL 2015;6(3):82–4)

Optimizing patient outcomes in CML

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Imatinib has drastically changed the outcome of patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), offering the majority of patients a normal life span. More recently, the development of second, and third generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors and the advent of treatment discontinuation in CML made the management of these patients more challenging. Currently, three tyrosine kinase inhibitors are available in the first-line treatment of CML patients: imatinib, nolitinib and dasatinib. During several satellite symposia, hosted by Novartis during the 2015 annual meeting of the European Hematology Association (EHA), a panel of experts discussed the different aspects that need to be kept in mind when making treatment decisions in CML patients.

(BELG J HEMATOL 2015;6(3):85–7)

When is ponatinib a suitable treatment option for patients with chronic phase CML and how can we optimize the benefit/risk ratio?

(Belg J Hematol 2015;6(3):88–90)

Highlights of a satellite symposium of Ariad held during the EHA congress 2015

Inotuzumab ozogamicin (InO) shows promising efficacy and safety in ALL

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Adult patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia who experience relapsed or refractory disease have a poor prognosis. Inotuzumab ozogamicin (InO), an anti-CD22 antibody drug conjugate, could be a new option for treatment in these patients. At the EHA 2015 in Vienna, Dr. Daniel DeAngelo (Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston) presented data from a phase III study comparing InO with standard of care (SOC).

(BELG J HEMATOL 2015;6(3):91–2)

Blinatumomab: new hope for patients with relapsed/refractory acute lymphoblastic leukemia

(BELG J HEMATOL 2015;6(3):93–5)