Friday 24th and Saturday 25th January 2020, in Leipzig, Germany
Report written by Dr. Patrick Hayden, Secretary CMWP
The first CMWP Scientific and Educational Meeting of 2020 took place at the Hotel Innside in central Leipzig on Friday 24th and Saturday 25th January. The Scientific session began at 11am in the top-floor conference facility where the subcommittee chairs presented updates on recently published manuscripts, ongoing studies and new proposals. Donal McLornan (London) provided an overview of the broad range of studies currently under way in myeloproliferative diseases and Marie Robin (Paris) detailed progress on the current suite of projects in MDS. After lunch, Stefan Schönland (Heidelberg) went through the studies in myeloma, amyloidosis and other rarer plasma cell diseases. Patrick Hayden (Dublin) discussed the work of the Practice Harmonisation and Guidelines subcommittee which recently led on a cross-EBMT initiative to produce best practice recommendations on CAR T therapy; following a two-day workshop in May 2019 and extensive peer review, these were published in Haematologica in January. Planned projects for this subcommittee in 2020 span myelofibrosis, CMML and novel cellular therapies. The afternoon closed with sessions on CML presented by Yes Chalandon (Geneva) and on chronic lymphoproliferative disorders by Olivier Tournilhac (Clermont Ferrand). There was good representation from the EBMT Leiden Office and excellent attendance by newly appointed CMWP statisticians. A recurring theme throughout the presentations was the work of the Data Managers in pursuing Data Quality Initiatives in different diseases including Myeloma and CML.
Following the meeting, our local host, Uwe Platzbecker, organised a very enjoyable dinner in the Leipzig Ratskeller located in the New Town Hall. The enormous underground dining hall provided an impressive venue for a delicious, well-earned meal.
On the morning of Saturday 25th January, the Educational Meeting attracted local attendees as well as CMWP members back to the top-floor conference room. During the opening session on myeloma, Meral Beksac (Ankara) discussed the increasing role of novel antibodies. There followed a debate in which Stefan Knop (Würzburg) spoke in favour of a continuing role for allogeneic transplantation in the treatment of myeloma whereas Marie von Lilienfeld-Toal (Jena) argued against its use.
At the Myelodysplasia session, Uwe Platzbecker (Leipzig), guided us through the do’s and don’ts of bridging high-risk MDS to transplant and Christian Thiede (Dresden) discussed the role of MRD in myeloid malignancies prior to and after allogeneic haematopoietic cell transplantation. After mid-morning coffee, the closing session focused on the future of cellular therapies. Suman Mitra (Lille) asked the provocative question “Do we need CARs?”, M. Bachmann (Dresden) spoke on UniCARs, Marie-Therese Rubio (Nancy) expanded on iNKT CAR T cells and Gerhard Ehninger (Dresden) closed with his vision of the future of cellular therapies. Finally, Uwe Platzbecker as local host brought a very successful and collegiate meeting to a close.
