59th ASH Annual Meeting to Celebrate Major Advances in Hematology Research

(WASHINGTON, December 6, 2017) – The American Society of Hematology (ASH), the world’s largest professional society concerned with the causes and treatment of blood disorders, will host more than 25,000 attendees from around the world to highlight groundbreaking scientific research and the latest advances in patient care at its 59th annual meeting, December 9-12, at the Georgia World Congress Center. 

The 2017 ASH Annual Meeting will feature nearly 5,000 scientific abstract presentations in malignant and non-malignant blood diseases – from cutting-edge advances in gene therapy to practice-changing discoveries in immunotherapies. The top six abstracts will be presented during the Plenary Scientific Session on Sunday, and the Late-Breaking Abstracts Session on Tuesday will feature six studies with novel data of high impact. In addition to these signature sessions, experts will analyze abstracts on revolutionary treatments for hemophilia and use of combination therapies in this year’s two Featured Topic Discussions.

“The ASH Annual Meeting has always been the premier event for serving a global community of hematologists and health professionals,” said ASH President Kenneth C. Anderson, MD, of the Lebow Institute for Myeloma Therapeutics and Jerome Lipper Myeloma Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. “With precision medicine being a major theme this year, we are excited to highlight the cross-cutting areas of genomics and immunology and the promise they offer to transform the way we care for our patients. I am thrilled to welcome my friends and colleagues from all over the globe to join us in Atlanta this winter.”

Beyond the research presented in the abstract presentations, ASH will offer a special education session on the ASH Clinical Practice Guidelines on Venous Thromboembolism (VTE), the first guidelines in development under a multi-year ASH effort to develop a series of rigorous, evidenced-based clinical guidelines in hematology. The set of 10 guidelines will focus on the prevention, treatment, and diagnosis of VTE, and the chairs of each of the 10 panels will present key recommendations from the upcoming chapters during this session.

In addition, the meeting will offer a number of special presentations to help clinicians understand the implications of recent drug approvals on patient care in real-world settings. The Society is pleased to co-host two ASH-FDA joint symposia on new drug approvals – one on drugs recently approved for acute lymphoid leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and the other on acute myeloid leukemia. Furthermore, a special education session on CAR T-cell therapy will cover the health systems and financial implications of offering CAR T therapies, the Foundation for the Accreditation of Cellular Therapies’ standards for institutions offering immune effector cells, and monitoring for long-term complications of CAR T therapies.

ASH’s new Global Capacity-Building Showcase, which is designed to facilitate capacity-building initiatives among the international hematology community, will allow presenters to highlight international collaborations related to research or capacity-building through digital posters displayed at the Georgia World Congress Center. Additionally, a special education session on the Hematologic Response to Mass Casualty Radiological Disasters will discuss the importance of emergency preparedness, both domestically and internationally, from an education focus, enhancing knowledge among the broader hematologic community.

Other noteworthy annual meeting offerings include the Presidential Symposium, Education and Scientific Programs, and a wide array of lectures, seminars, special symposia, and recognition of the Society’s prestigious honorific and mentor award recipients:

• The Presidential Symposium will focus on chromatin modulation and how it has provided the framework and expanded the spectrum of novel therapeutic targets in hematologic malignancies.
• The Education Program will offer 31 sessions on key areas of progress in hematology practice, including sessions on expanding role of immunotherapy in non-Hodgkin lymphoma, practical aspects of acute and chronic pain management in sickle cell disease, and novel therapeutics in myeloma.
• The Scientific Program will feature 17 sessions on the hottest areas of hematology research, including epigenetics, genomics, and immunology and host defense. The 2017 program will also feature special symposia on new pathways linking hematopoiesis, thrombosis, and cardiovascular disease, understanding and modulating the DNA damage response, targeted therapy, and the basic science of hemostasis and thrombosis.
• Several acclaimed hematologists will present this year’s special lectures:
  • Luigi Naldini, MD, PhD, and Marina Cavazzana, MD, PhD, will present the Ernest Beutler Lecture, “Turning Foes Into Friends: Exploiting HIV to Generate Efficient and Safe Vectors to Cure Inherited and Acquired Blood Diseases.”
  • James R. Downing, MD, will present the E. Donnall Thomas Lecture, “The Molecular Pathology of Pediatric Acute Leukemia.” 
  • Giampaolo Merlini, MD, will present the 2017 Ham-Wasserman Lecture, "AL Amyloidosis: From Molecular Mechanisms to Targeted Therapies."
• The Society will honor the following hematologists with individual awards for their achievements during the 2017 meeting:
  • Marshall A. Lichtman, MD, University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry – Wallace H. Coulter Award for Lifetime Achievement in Hematology
  • Benjamin L. Ebert, MD, PhD, Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute – William Dameshek Prize
  • Josef T. Prchal, MD, the University of Utah, and Sherrill J. Slichter, MD, Bloodworks Northwest and the University of Washington – Henry M. Stratton Medal
  • Ronald Hoffman, MD, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and the late Oliver W. Press, MD, PhD, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and University of Washington – ASH Mentor Award
  • Betty S. Pace, MD, Augusta University - Leadership in Promoting Diversity Award
  • Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Biden Cancer Initiative, and American television journalist and author Tom Brokaw, The National Broadcasting Company – Outstanding and Public Service Award 

For the complete annual meeting program and abstracts, visit http://www.hematology.org/Annual-Meeting/ or download ASH’s annual meeting mobile app. Up-to-the-minute meeting information can also be found by following ASH on Twitter (@ash_hematology) and the meeting hashtag #ASH17. 

The American Society of Hematology (www.hematology.org) is the world’s largest professional society of hematologists dedicated to furthering the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disorders affecting the blood. For more than 50 years, the Society has led the development of hematology as a discipline by promoting research, patient care, education, training, and advocacy in hematology. ASH publishes Blood (www.bloodjournal.org), the most cited peer-reviewed publication in the field, which is available weekly in print and online. In 2016, ASH launched Blood Advances (www.bloodadvances.org), an online, peer-reviewed open-access journal.

CONTACT:
Sara Khalaf, American Society of Hematology
[email protected]; 202-552-4925