International Congress of the European Haematology Association Conference in Frankfurt Germany June 2023

International Congress of the European Haematology Association Conference in Frankfurt, Germany – 8^th-11^th June 2023

With more than 12,000 delegates a year, this conference is the leading meeting place for haematologists in all fields of this speciality in Europe and beyond.  The focus for the CTR attendees, (myself, Joanna Canham and Oliver Cumming) was on acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) sessions, which included oral and poster presentations about the Cardiff University-Sponsored AML trials.

These presentations reflect many years of hard work by the trial teams, not least those named as authors below.

On Friday 9^th, the AML sessions included oral presentations of AML18 (quizartinib experience, presented by Professor Steven Knapper) and AML19 (FLAG-Ida, presented by Professor Nigel Russell).

Results from the trials, which are supported by the NCRI AML working group, have always been held in high regard internationally, and the results were very well-received – the midotarg presentation forms the backbone of a new trial funding application, and the Quizartinib data is already of interest to our pharma collaborator.

The poster sessions throughout the conference included further presentation of data from AML19 (midotarg follow-up, Cumming, Wilhelm-Benartzi, Batten, Hinson, Canham) and posters below.

We expect these posters to progress to equally impactful publications as the poster presentations – in particular, the abstract based on molecular monitoring which included a dedication to the late (great) Professor David Grimwade.

As ever with conference attendance, the main business was undertaken between meetings, over coffee or evening dinner, dashing between sessions or, most challenging of all, a breakfast symposium.  Jo and I were part of a number of promising meetings with pharma companies and international collaborators from Italy, Germany, France, Hong Kong, the US and across the UK.  My personal highlight of the conference was a patient advocacy session where an Italian patient representative reminded us all that “I am not my disease, I am me”!  His impassioned reference to understanding and communicating the ‘side-effects’ on a patient’s life rather than just drug-related toxicities was particularly poignant, and thought-provoking.

So, all in all, a very successful conference.  As with most international conferences the time in (often) a new city is book-ended by a very early start and excited fatigue, and a very late finish with a sense of being dipped in coffee for 4 days. And then straight back to tackling the pile-up of emails the next day.

We will ‘go again’ though – and the CTR blood cancer group will no doubt be in a strong position to support key presentations at the American Society of Haematology conference in San Diego in December.

• Blog by Ian Thomas