CONGRESS NEWS

Congress highlights ISHL12

BJH - volume 13, issue 8, december 2022

J. Blokken PhD, PharmD, T. Feys MBA, MSc

SUMMARY

The 12th International Symposium on Hodgkin Lymphoma (ISHL12) took place as a hybrid conference in Cologne, Germany, from October 22 to 24, 2022. During the conference, ISHL12 provided a comprehensive overview of the latest advances in biology, clinical research, diagnostics and treatment of Hodgkin Lymphoma. The main focus was on older and frail patients as well as on patients with early stage disease. Several workshops, interactive case discussions and satellite symposia complemented the program.

(BELG J HEMATOL 2022;13(8):328–32)

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Haematological echoes from ESMO 2022

BJH - volume 13, issue 8, december 2022

A. Enguita PhD, T. Feys MBA, MSc

SUMMARY

While the annual meeting of the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) of course mainly focusses on advances in solid tumours, this year’s edition also featured a session zooming on haematological malignancies. In this session, encouraging results were presented for the combination of lemzoparlimab, a CD47 antibody, with azacytidine, in the treatment of patients with myelodysplastic syndromes. In addition, also the new anti-CD20-MMAE antibody-drug conjugate TRS005 displayed promising activity in patients with relapsed/refractory (R/R) B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Finally, two interesting studies were presented using novel CAR-T constructs, one CAR-T expressing a PD1 knock-down gene for the treatment of CD19+ B cell malignancies, and a second CAR-T construct targeting BCMA, for the treatment of R/R myeloma.

(BELG J HEMATOL 2022;13(8):333–6)

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Highlights in CML and MPN

BJH - volume 12, issue 1, february 2021

T. Devos MD, PhD

SUMMARY

A huge amount of promising and novel data were presented during the virtual ASH 2020 congress. In this paper, I first will focus on the most interesting clinical CML abstracts, then I will present some highlights of the MPN presentations.

(BELG J HEMATOL 2021;12(1):4-7)

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Highlights in frontline therapy of multiple myeloma

BJH - volume 12, issue 1, february 2021

C. Doyen MD, PhD

SUMMARY

As participant to the virtual 2020 ASH meeting, we missed the bay of San Diego and the interesting face-to-face discussions with our friends and colleagues but we got some answers that were very useful for our Multiple Myeloma (MM) practice in Belgium. There were highlights on the efficacy of high dose Melphalan (HDM) and autologous stem cell transplantation (ASCT), the MRD negativity as a surrogate marker of progression free survival (PFS) and updates on recent quadruplets-based studies.

(BELG J HEMATOL 2021;12(1):8-13)

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Highlights in relapsed/refractory multiple myeloma

BJH - volume 12, issue 1, february 2021

J. Van Droogenbroeck MD

SUMMARY

As our induction therapy in the approach of multiple myeloma (MM) keeps on changing, the character of the relapses is altering too. By moving from doublets over triplets to quadruplets in the induction schemes, and thus intensifying first-line therapies, relapses are very often postponed in time. Nevertheless, they are more resistant to chemotherapy and thus more difficult to treat. In vitro data confirm the increase of the mutational burden of the persistent myeloma cells after chemotherapy and even more after the administration of high dose melphalan, followed by autologous stem cell support (ASCT). This could be an argument to leave ASCT in the first-line treatment of MM in the upcoming future. Moreover, the common use of lenalidomide in maintenance will lead to more refractoriness to this molecule in the relapse setting. The same is of course true when other molecules – e.g. proteasome inhibitors – are used in the maintenance setting. If the addition of daratumumab in first-line would become the standard in induction, this will of course also influence the behaviour of RRMM.

(BELG J HEMATOL 2021;12(1):14-6)

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Highlights in aggressive lymphoma

BJH - volume 12, issue 1, february 2021

V. Vergote MD

SUMMARY

Hundreds of interesting oral abstracts and poster presentations were presented at this year’s – first ever- virtual 62nd Annual Meeting of ASH. In this article, I will highlight the most promising data regarding diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), Mantle Cell Lymphoma (MCL) and T-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (T-NHL).

(BELG J HEMATOL 2021;12(1):17-21)

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Highlights in acute myeloid leukaemia

BJH - volume 12, issue 1, february 2021

K. Beel MD, PhD

SUMMARY

AML is an extremely complex and heterogeneous disease. It is also a disease of the elderly, with a median age at diagnosis of 68 years and one third of the patients being older than 75 years. These factors make treatment of AML challenging and there is still a high unmet need to improve survival and QOL for the majority of AML patients.

(BELG J HEMATOL 2021;12(1):22-4)

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