SUMMARY
The ASH 2020 annual meeting provided us with several contributions to the field of haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Post-transplant cyclophosphamide (PTCy) held a prominent place on the stage. This modality of graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) prophylaxis, initially developed in the haplo-identical HSCT setting, showed so much benefit that its use tends to spread throughout other types of donors. PTCy seems to be particularly investigated with the mission of improving outcomes in HSCT from mismatched unrelated donors (MMUD), which is of great interest for patients from underserved ethnicities lacking a matched donor. Management of chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGvHD) also had its share of improvement with the presentation of the results of the REACH3 study, comparing ruxolitinib to best available therapy. Reduced intensity conditioning (RIC) for myeloid malignancies got some attention with a boost to the support of its use for higher-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS). We will also highlight an attempt to improve the efficacy of RIC in high-risk myeloid malignancies by the addition of venetoclax in a phase I study.
(BELG J HEMATOL 2021;12(1):33-7)
