Articles
1. Chronic Leukaemia Working Party - MMVAR Trial
2. New organization of the Acute Leukaemia Working Party (ALWP) to Promote Specific Thematic Investigation
..............................................................................................................
New organization of the Acute Leukaemia Working Party (ALWP) to Promote Specific Thematic Investigation
 |
Picture from left to right
Oliver Ottman, Mohamad Mothy, Emmanuelle Polge, Boris Labar, Jordi Esteve, Benedicte Samey,
Vanderson Rocha, William Arcese, Myriam Labopin and Christoph Schmid |
ALWP - Research in the field of haematopoietic transplant for acute leukaemia is an expanding subject with several new areas, which deserve specific attention. Among its objectives, ALWP has to recognise new strategies of transplant and promote focused investigation. In order to adapt the structure of the Working Party to the study of areas with growing interest, the creation of specific Subcommittees for thematic investigation within the ALWP was proposed at the last WP meeting. The following information is aimed to define the scope of these Subcommittees and to give an overview of how the ALWP aims to operate within this new structure.
Five different subcommittees are initially proposed; the chairs were designated and approved at the last ALWP meeting with the aim to cover the following areas of research:
- Immunotherapy: (Chair: Cristoph Schmid)
The subcommittee will cover studies on different strategies for inducing graft-versus-leukaemia effect in the allogeneic transplant setting, such as pre-emptive and therapeutic donor lymphocyte infusion.- Alternative donors: (Chair: William Arcese):
This subcommittee will focus on the analysis of results with different types of transplant from an alternative source (i.e., a non HLA-identical sibling), which includes unrelated donor, haploidentical donor, and cord blood.- Reduced-intensity conditioning (Chair: Mohamad Mothy):
Analysis of the outcome with different types of non-myeloablative conditioning regimens in acute leukaemia constitutes the scope of this proposed subcommittee.
- Philadelphia Chromosome positive Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (Chair: Oliver Ottman):
This subcommittee will cover all aspects of transplantation of adults L (9;22) ALL, with the aim to propose new strategies of Haematopoietic Stem Cell Transplant in the era of molecular target drugs.- HSCT for AL performed in learning EBMT centres (Chair: Boris Labar):
With the development of HSCT in new centres all over Europe, this subcommittee will be in charge of gathering and analysing results of HSCT, looking also at learning centre effect and impact of social and economic aspects in HSCT outcomes.
The Subcommittees will promote specific research by:
- Designing retrospective studies in their given field. Topics to analyse will be identified in the Subcommittee and an investigator with proven interest in the field will be charged to conduct the study.
- Suggestion of prospective studies.
- Establishing contact with leading investigators and National Cooperative Groups involved in the field.
- Organising an annual meeting with main investigators from the EBMT within the area covered by the Subcommittee to discuss on-going studies, promote new initiatives and discuss modifications of the structure of the Subcommittee in order to improve its functioning.
The final Constitution of additional subcommittees will be discussed during next ALWP meetings.
- The ALWP Chairperson will nominate an EBMT member as Chair of each Subcommittee, based on his/her expertise and a high degree of involvement in the field. The initial length of this office will be two years, which can be extended to an additional period of two more. His/her duties will consist of bringing together a group of people with high interest in the area (“a critical mass”), to promote the design of retrospective and prospective studies in the field, to make an adequate surveillance of the studies, and to organise periodic meetings of the Subcommittee.
- Members of the Subcommittee all will be EBMT members interested in the area. The chairperson will contact leading investigators and encourage their participation in the Subcommittee.
- The Chairperson will assign a Study Coordinator to each retrospective or prospective study accepted for development by the Subcommittee.
- The Chairperson will organise a meeting of the Subcommittee at least once a year. Ongoing studies, proposal of new studies, strategies for improvement of the Subcommittee functioning will be the main goals of these meetings. Minutes of these meetings will be distributed to all ALWP members and an up-dated report of the activities of the Subcommittee will be planned during general ALWP meetings.
- The need to create new subcommittees will be discussed every two years at the ALWP meetings.
- At the annual meeting of the EBMT during the ALWP session, the chairs of the subcommittees will be asked to deliver a report to all participants. Minutes of these reports will be available for all EBMT members.
- One scientific publication per year for each subcommittee will be required.
- All the Subcommittees will be supported by the ALWP staff.
Jordi Esteve, MD
Secretary of the Acute Leukaemia Working Party (ALWP)-EBMT
Hospital Clínic
Villarroel 170
08036 Barcelona – Spain
Tel/fax: +34 93 227 54 28
Vanderson Rocha, MD, PhD
Chairperson of Acute Leukaemia Working Party (ALWP) - EBMT
Faculté de Médecine St-Antoine
27, rue Chaligny
75571 Paris Cedex 12 – France
Tel: 33 1 42 49 48 25
Fax: 33 1 42 49 26 99
