CATCH ALL’s ASH 2023 Highlights in Hematologic Oncology
The American Society of Hematology (ASH) annual meeting, recognized globally as the paramount congress in hematologic oncology, recently concluded with notable advancements. Held annually in December in the United States, the event drew over 30,000 attendees, facilitating international experts to share insights through numerous sessions and thousands of research abstracts encompassing a broad spectrum of hematology-related topics.
The 65th annual meeting, which took place from December 9th to 12th, 2023, was hosted in San Diego, California, featuring both in-person and virtual attendance options. The CATCH ALL team is proud to highlight our significant contributions, presenting in three talks and one poster, as well as actively participating in various other projects.
Prof. Schrappe (Z-project) revealed the latest results of the Phase 3 trial AIEOP-BFM ALL 2017, revealing that pediatric patients with high-risk B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia in their first complete remission experienced significantly reduced adverse events with Blinatumomab compared to traditional intensive chemotherapy, suggesting its potential as a less toxic alternative.
Dr. Dr. Guranda Chitadze of P3 shared findings from an in-depth immune profiling study within the AIEOP-BFM ALL 2017 trial, revealing distinct immune compositions between high-risk and medium-risk pediatric patients with B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia undergoing Blinatumomab immunotherapy, offering insights into the potential impact of prior chemotherapy on treatment efficacy.
Dr. Lorenz Bastian (P4) showed recent insights into their research on BCR::ABL1-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia, unveiling two distinct developmental trajectories (‘lymphoid-only’ and ‘multilineage’) and highlighting specific gene expression clusters and genomic alterations that could have clinical implications for patient outcomes.
Sonja Bendig from P3 successfully presented her poster, revealing improved measurable residual disease detection in B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia peripheral blood using increased DNA input and amplicon-based next-generation sequencing.
Several other PIs and members of CATCH ALL played crucial roles as principal investigators or co-authors in numerous presented works. Also, our associated scientists successfully presented their work; for example Carina Lynn Gehlert, Post-Doc in Prof. Peipp’s group (P7), who presented a poster on a novel Fc-optimized antibody-drug conjugate, CD7-DE-vcMMAE, demonstrating potent antitumor activity in T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia through unique Fc effector functions and direct growth inhibitory effects. Dr. Lars Fransecky discussed the preliminary results of the GMALL-Bliven Trial, focusing on Venetoclax and Blinatumomab treatment for adult patients with relapsed/refractory or MRD-positive Philadelphia chromosome-negative B-precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (Ph-negative B-ALL).
Congratulations to the entire CATCH ALL team on the success of the ASH congress!