ASH News Daily 2016 - Issue 3 - A-1

ASH NewS DAily
®

58th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology
Issue 3, Section A
Monday, December 5, 2016
San Diego, CA
Read this issue online at

www.hematology.org/ashnewsdaily2016_monday
Follow us on Twitter using #ASH16

Schedule

"Less Is More. Except Sometimes,
Less Is ... Well ... Less"
By Naveen Pemmaraju, MD

9:00 - 10:00 a.m.
E. Donnall Thomas Lecture
San Diego Convention Center
(Hall AB)
10:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon
Spotlight Sessions
10:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon
Special Education Session on
Precision Medicine
San Diego Convention Center
(Hall AB)
12:15 - 1:15 p.m.
Featured Topic Discussion: Novel
Approaches to Immunotherapy -
Not Just Checkpoint
San Diego Convention Center
(Room 6CF)
12:15 - 1:15 p.m.
Meet the Blood Editors
Hilton San Diego Bayfront
(Cobalt 501AB; Cobalt 501C)
1:30 - 2:30 p.m.
Ernest Beutler Lecture
San Diego Convention Center
(Hall AB)
2:45 - 4:15 p.m.
Spotlight Sessions:
Novel Technologies to Query Single Cells
in Hematopoiesis
San Diego Convention Center, Room 3
Transplant for Non-Malignant Disease
San Diego Convention Center, Room 9
A New Wave in the Evaluation of
Hemophilic Joint Disease: The Role of
Point-of-Care High Resolution
Musculoskeletal Ultrasound in the
Management of Hemophilic Arthropathy
San Diego Convention Center, Room 10
4:30 - 6:00 p.m.
Special Symposium on the Basic Science
of Hemostasis and Thrombosis

IN THIS SECTION
Hemophilia
A-3
Follicular Lymphoma
A-3
Red Cell Biology
A-9
Precision Medicine
A-12

he challenge in pediatric
acute lymphoblastic leukemia [ALL] is how to identify
the individual patients who can be
cured with less therapy, and what
elements of therapy can be removed
safely for these patients," explained
Dr. Stephen P. Hunger. Dr. Hunger
introduced Dr. Martin Schrappe's
attention-generating Plenary Scientific abstract on "Reduced Intensity
Delayed Intensification in StandardRisk Patients Defined by Minimal
Residual Disease in Childhood
Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia:
Results of an International Randomized Trial in 1,164 Patients."
A challenge, indeed. ALL Treatment schemas for pediatric patients
are intense, often requiring two to
three years of therapy that includes

Dr. Martin Schrappe

both intensive and maintenance
phases. While survival for pediatric patients with ALL has dramati-

cally improved over the past four
decades, some still experience "lessthan-success" via disease relapse,
or lasting toxicities of treatment.
One strategy to address the latter is
to identify patients who may benefit from abridged therapy, enabling
the highest number of cures with
the least amount of toxicity. Minimal residual disease (MRD) is one
of the most, if not the most, critical
of all factors in predicting overall
patient outcomes for patients with
ALL. Dr. Schrappe and colleagues
painstakingly enrolled a staggering
4,741 pediatric patients with ALL
in two major clinical trials (AIEOPBFM-ALL 2000 and NCT 00613457).
Among these patients, 1,164 from
four different European countries
were randomized to two separate
»» PEDIATRIC ALL Page A-24

The Sky's the Limit for Sickle Cell Disease
By Rakhi Naik, MD, MHS

lose your eyes. Tighter...
tighter. Okay, now imagine
yourself in a world where
we can eliminate disease by targeting the genes that cause them.
Does this sound like sheer fantasy?
Believe it or not, it may seem like a
faraway dream, but this imaginary
world is now within our reach. Tomorrow's Presidential Symposium
"Sickle Cell Disease: New Biology,
New Therapeutics" will bring us
closer to this reality by spotlighting
exciting gene-modifying therapies
that promise to change the course of
sickle cell - and other genetic diseases - forever.
ASH President Dr. Charles
Abrams does not hold back when
describing the great possibilities
that this session will portray: "For
the first time in my life," he said, "I
see tremendous progress toward a
cure for sickle cell disease. The purpose of this symposium is to present alternate ways to cure sickle
cell disease (beyond bone marrow

transplantation) and translate these
methods toward a cure for other hematologic diseases."
In the first talk, Dr. Kwaku
Ohene-Frempong will provide an
introduction of the global perspec-

tive of sickle cell disease (SCD).
Drawing from his vast personal
experiences, Dr. Ohene-Frempong
will review the changing trajectory
»» SYMPOSIUM Page A-24

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of ASH News Daily 2016 - Issue 3