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Committees
EBMT Developmental Committee
Members

A Developmental Committee has been formed within the EBMT focusing on
emerging cell therapies besides hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
The scope of the subcommittee and its members will include, besides haematology,
representatives from rheumatology, neurology, cardiology, immunology and
other disciplines where novel cell therapies may be used clinically in
the future.
The first aim for the cubcommittee is to provide guidelines for the expansion
of clinical grade mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) and other cell preparations
ex vivo. The second aim is to provide a registry for the collection of
data on cell preparations used in clinical transplants and the outcome
of patients treated with such therapies. Cell therapies will include both
MSC and bone marrow and peripheral blood mononuclear or CD34+ cells. Data
will be collected both on patients treated in the setting of hematopoietic
stem cell transplantation, to enhance hematopoietic engraftment and for
profylaxis and treatment of GvHD, as well as for patients treated by other
disciplines for neurologic, rheumatologic, inflammatory bowel diseases
and heart disease etc. Rather than detailed prospective collection of
data, the registry will aim to collect information on where patients have
been treated with various cell preparations for different conditions and
thus allow for detailed retrospective data collection.
The EBMT-MSC expansion consortium provides a standardized protocol for
expansion of clinical grade MSC, including Standard Operating Procedures
(SOPs) and guidelines for the phenotypic characterisation of the cells
and release criteria for the cell batch. This will allow collaborative
trials using cells generated under similar conditions in several academic
centers. Several such studies are underway, evaluating the efficacy of
MSC in prevention and treatment of GvHD and for promotion of engraftment
and prevention of graft rejection in haploidentical and cord blood transplants.
The EBMT-MSC expansion consortium will register detailed data on patients
treated within the collaborative trials but also aims to provide a general
registry collecting data on patients treated with MSC generated by any
protocol, for instance MSC generated in fetal calf serum free media. It
will also include patients treated with MSC by other disciplines, including
autoimmune disorders and heart disease.
The field of cell therapy is rapidly expanding. It includes cell preparations
defined by various criteria and may be applicable to patients suffering
from autoimmune, neurologic and hematologic disorders as well as heart
diseases. To date, clinical experience, both regarding the positive effects
of such treatments and risks of possible side effects is very limited.
The Developmental Committee of the EBMT aims to provide knowledge and
support in the field of cell transplantation beyond HSCT, a registry for
collection of data on patients treated with novel therapies and also includes
a more detailed collaborative effort in the field of MSC transplantation.

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