EHA news
There are many myths out there. Today, on World Cancer Day 2013, you can get the facts. One and a half million premature deaths per year, among them from hematological malignancies, could be prevented.
Personalized medicine and hematology have strong links. As one of the few medical specialties to do so,hematology has developed successful personalized medicine strategies and has managed to actually increase cure rates. It looks as if the future of research into blood disorders will yield more and more subtypes of diseases that will necessitate more personalized diagnoses and treatments. EHA is a member of the European Alliance for Personalized Medicine (EAPM) to work together with other academics, healthcare professionals, payers, patients, and industry representatives to accelerate the development, delivery and uptake of personalized medicine and diagnostics. Last week, this alliance organized the Irish Presidency Conference on ‘Innovation and Patient Access to Personalised Medicine’ in Dublin.
From the conference, the following press statement is released:
The first ever EHA-SWG Scientific Meeting, titled Focus on Neutropenia & other genetic marrow failure failures took place in Genova, Italy, from September 14-16, 2012.
The meeting was chaired by Carlo Dufour, MD from the Heamtology Unit from G. Gaslini Children’s Hospital, Genova, Italy
60 participants attended the meeting from Europe, Middle-East, Africa and United States. Attendance included faculty members, trained and in training doctors involved in the field of neutropenia, marrow failure and pediatric hematology in general.
Amsterdam, June 15, 2012. “Hodgkin lymphoma has become one of the most curable malignancies in adults,” was stated by Dr Andreas Engert, Professor of Hematology at the University Hospital of Cologne in Germany. Results of the German Hodgkin Study Group (GHSG) HD 15 trial are presented at the 17th Congress of the European Hematology Association in Amsterdam.
The word ‘leukemia’ fills people with awe and foreboding. Things have changed, however, for the better. In children who have Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) the cure rate is about 90%. In adults the story is not so good. The predominant type of leukemia in adults is Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) and most patients are over 60 years of age. Although age was felt to be an important factor in the poor responses seen in adults, it is now clear that Acute Leukemia in older patients is a different disease which is intrinsically resistant to traditional chemotherapy.
Laurent Degos will be the fifth recipient of the Jean Bernard Lifetime Achievement Award which was presented for the first time at the 13th Congress in Copenhagen. This award was established to honor outstanding physicians and scientists for their lifetime contribution to the advancement of hematology.
The introduction of a European Hematology Association-Theme of the Year in June 2012, focusing on Quality of Life (QoL) in Hematology, was successful in stimulating awareness, conference sessions, publications, and reports.
The conclusion, in June 2013, of this year’s theme includes two editorials in Haematologica entitled “Patients’ needs in hematology: whose perspectives?” and “Age and Aging in blood disorders: EHA Theme of the Year 2013-2014’’. The Scientific Working Group Quality of Life and Symptoms will organize a SWG Session “Implementation of treatment related patient-reported outcomes in routine clinical practice in hematological malignancies”. Although each theme of the year is introduced to highlight a certain topic in hematology, the themes will remain active. Therefore, Quality of Life will stay on the agenda.
BRUSSELS, September 18 2012:
Today, Nessa Childers, MEP hosted the launch of the Manifesto of the European Alliance for Personalised Medicine in the European Parliament.
The Manifesto sets out both the opportunities and challenges of ‘a targeted approach to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease based on an individual’s specific profile’ - what is known as personalised medicine.
Currently available treatments for disease have revolutionised health in Europe and beyond, but science has now brought healthcare to the brink of another major evolution.
By a combination of molecular medicine and computer technology, it is becoming possible for screening of patients, early treatment, or prevention to be calibrated precisely, to deliver with maximum effectiveness. With personalised medicine, healthcare services will ensure the right intervention to the right patient at the right time - improving patient outcomes, reducing the likelihood of adverse events, and cutting down unnecessary treatments.
The EHA Board has selected Professor Jesús San Miguel for the José Carreras Lecture at the 17th Congress in Amsterdam. Jesús San Miguel is Professor of Medicine (Haematology), Head of the Hematology Department at the University Hospital of Salamanca, and Director of the Biomedical Research Institute of Salamanca, Spain. He is an internationally recognized leader in the field of hematology, and specifically in the area of multiple myeloma.
Amsterdam, June 15, 2012. “There is a large potential opportunity for saving lives by early identification of cardiac iron loading in Thalassemia patients”, declares Professor John-Paul Carpenter of the Royal Brompton CMR Unit in London at the 17th Congress of the European Hematology Association in Amsterdam.