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| Reports on Overseas' Conferences and
Meetings |
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A Society Participation Report on
The American Society of Hematology
49th Annual Meeting and Exposition |
| Masako Iwanaga, Department
of Molecular Medicine and Hematology |
The American Society of
Hematology (ASH) 49th Annual Meeting and
Exposition was held in Georgia World Congress
Center Atlanta, Georgia state, USA. Professor
Masao Tomonaga, Associate Professor Kunihiro
Tsukasaki, Graduate Student Koji Ando, and
I from Department of Molecular Medicine and
Hematology, and Dr. Yumi Takasaki from the
Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Hospital, attended and
presented in the meeting.
ASH Annual Meeting is one of the large-scale
scientific meetings in which more than 20000
clinicians and scientists attend from all
over the world every year. The meeting programs
consist of a variety of scientific sessions
from the cutting-edge diagnosis and therapeutic
method for hematological diseases to molecular
biology, epidemiology, education, and health
service research. Because the meeting has
a peer-review system that select only the
latest researches in the field for poster
or oral presentation among the thousands submitted
abstracts, we Japanese hematologists feel
humble pride that "I can present my research
on ASH Annual Meeting".
There were more presentations of clinical
trials than basic researches in this year
meeting. Especially, the session of therapeutic
strategies for multiple myeloma was the highlight.
A number of therapeutic options using novel
medicines were presented. Until recently,
multiple myeloma remains incurable despite
advances in the first-line treatment. However,
combination regimens incorporating three novel
agents, bortezomib, thalidomide, and lenalidomide,
together with commonly used conventional drugs
or stem cell transplantation substantially
improved prognosis of multiple myeloma, which
gives hope to myeloma patients. Other than
treatment of the multiple myeloma, the effectiveness
of novel medicines (AMG531, Eltrombopag) for
the chronic idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura
and the AZT/IFN combination therapy for adult
T cell leukemia were received heavy attention.
Unfortunately, use of these novel therapeutic
medicines is limited or unauthorized in Japan.
I was keenly aware of problems of the medical
service system in Japan on my flight back
from Atlanta.
Reference: http://www.hematology.org/meetings/2007/index.cfm |
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