ASH News Daily - Monday, December 12, 2011 - (Page A-1)

Celebrating 10 Years ASH NEWS DAILY 53rd Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology ® Issue 3, Section A Monday, December 12, 2011 San Diego, CA Read this issue online at www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ashnewsdaily2011_Monday/ Schedule 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. E. Donnall Thomas Lecture and Prize San Diego Convention Center Hall AB 10:30 a.m. – 12:00 noon Education Spotlight Sessions (ticketed sessions) 1:30 – 2:30 p.m. Ernest Beutler Lecture and Prize San Diego Convention Center Hall AB 2:45 – 4:15 p.m. Education Spotlight Sessions (ticketed sessions) 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. Poster Hall Reception San Diego Convention Center Hall GH Looking ahead to Tuesday 7:00 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. On-Site Registration San Diego Convention Center Sails Pavilion 7:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. Simultaneous Sessions 7:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. Late-Breaking Abstracts Session San Diego Convention Center Hall AB Bone Marrow Harvest Time: Are We Going Back to the OR? By JoSeph Mikhael, Md, Med become a rare event in the life of a hematologist. Indeed, mobilizing stem cells from sibling donors has been the standard of care for transplantation for over a decade. The same approach, however, for unrelated donors is now in question after Dr. Claudio Anasetti, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute, presented the first abstract at the Plenary Scientific session yesterday. On behalf of the Blood and Mar- H row Transplant Clinical Trials Network (BMT CTN), Dr. Anasetti revealed the results of Protocol 0201, a phase III, prospective, randomized trial comparing bone marrow (BM) transplants to filgrastim-mobilized peripheral blood stem cells (PBSC). MDS Found It! One More Piece In The MDS Puzzle By BarBara pro, Md IN THIS SECTION It Is All in the Genes A-4 Find Cancer Early – Really Early A-6 Are We Finally Getting Smarter When It Comes to Stem Cell Transplant? A-9 The Truth Behind “TRIM” A-14 Spotlight on Lymphoma: The Latest Biology and Biologic Treatments A-15 ing the heterogeneity of myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) and the clonal evolution of these disorders. However, like jumbled pieces from a puzzle box, we have yet to sort out the multitude of features that will help us fully understand this disease. The abstract presented by Dr. Luca Malcovati, Policlinico San Matteo and University of Pavia, Italy, during yesterday’s Plenary Scientific session reported the identification of recurrent somatic mutations in the SF3B1 gene in patients with refractory anemia with ring sideroblasts (RARS). This work was presented on behalf of the I ncreasing evidence suggests that chromosome abnormalities play a critical role in determin- International Cancer Genome Consortium on Chronic Myeloid Disorders Working Group and is the result of a collaborative study with participating centers in the United Kingdom, Sweden, and Italy. Dr. Malcovati began his presenta- tion summarizing the data currently available on somatic mutations associated with MDS and their important prognostic implications. RARS is a specific subtype of MDS defined by the presence of 15 percent or more ring sideroblasts in the bone marrow. Another (good) characteristic of RARS is a very indolent clinical course with a low risk of leukemic evolution. Using parallel sequencing technology, investigators tried to identify somatically acquired »» MDS Page A-6 Dr. Luca Malcovati presents during Sunday’s Plenary Scientific session. arvesting bone marrow in the operating room has Dr. Claudio Anasetti presents his abstract during the Plenary Scientific session. To the surprise of many in the field, there was no survival difference between the two groups at three years; this is in stark contrast to previous trials in sibling donors where PBSC was superior to BM in decreasing relapse and increasing survival. As expected, however, PBSC does increase the risk of chronic graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). Although rates of acute GVHD were similar, chronic GVHD occurred in 53 percent of patients with PBSC and in 40 percent of those with BM (p=0.02). Why such a difference? “I believe PBSC cause more GVHD than marrow because they contain about 20-50-fold more T cells than marrow graft, and we use the same approach for GVHD prevention,” Dr. Anasetti commented. »» BMT Page A-2 https://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/ashnewsdaily2011_Monday/

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ASH News Daily - Monday, December 12, 2011

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