Newsletter May 2008

EHA Newsletter May 2007 > 2

newsletterthe official newsletter for members of the EHA

May 2008

New Jersey, United States by Marc Rudoltz

Like other organizations, where gover-nance structures have already been es-tablished, EHA needs to formalize a structure of good governance, in particu-lar but not exclusively, regarding its rela-tion with pharma. Since its foundation, EHA has established a fruitful and con-structive relation with the pharmaceuti-cal industry, while maintaining its inde-pendence and integrity at the individual and organizational level. Increased transparency, openness and firm adher-ence to ethical standards are mandatory to maintain public trust.

In January 2008 the Board established the EHA Governance Committee. The Committee, which is chaired by Dr Eric Berntorp (Sweden), has five additional members: Dr Clara Camaschella (Italy), Dr Ulrich Jäger (Austria), Dr Emili Montserrat (Spain), Dr John Goldman (United Kingdom) and Dr Niels Borre-gaard (Denmark). At a later stage we wish to also involve external advice in our Committee. The strategic objectives of this Commit-tee are to support the development, adoption and implementation of high quality governance processes, protocols, codes of conduct and relationships with-in the scope of the Association. In many

instances EHA members, in particular board members, are put in a position of duality or possible conflict of interest. The Governance Committee will start by focusing on the roles and responsibilities of members of the EHA Board, the Exec-utive Board and EHA committees. Guide-lines and a code of conduct will be estab-lished regarding the role of the pharmaceutical companies on one hand and the involvement of EHA Board and committee members on the other hand.

Another area where governance is im-portant for EHA is in its role as a provider of CME accreditation. One of the major goals of establishing a CME accreditation program is to ensure that medical and scientific information presented during symposia and workshops is unbiased and fully independent of companies that may support these meetings. We are ex-tremely pleased that our CME Accredita-tion Committee, in particular Dr Fran-cesco Lo Coco (Italy, Chair, CME Committee) and Dr Archie Prentice (United Kingdom), has proposed guide-lines and a code of conduct defining the role of the various partners. We are con-vinced that this will help to further de-velop and maintain a constructive col-laboration.

2 > EHA Newsletter May 2008

President’s Message: Governance

Willem Fibbe

In the Newsletter of November last year, I took the opportunity to look ahead

by identifying several major issues that we will focus on in the course of 2008.

These issues included our annual meeting, collaboration with external

partners, developments in the journal, our plans with respect to education

and changes in the Board. A new topic that we have put on the agenda for the

first time is governance. In this Newsletter, I would like to focus a bit more on

recent discussions that we had during the Board Retreat held several weeks

ago in Lisbon and within the newly formed EHA Governance Committee.

This year’s policy forum in Copenhagen will discuss the relation between pharma and academia and we are happy that Dr Mike Greaves from Aberdeen (United Kingdom), former Editor-in-Chief of the British Journal of Haematology and for-mer President of the British Society for Haematology has accepted the invitation to explain and discuss some of the is-sues for us. During this forum, the cur-rent president of the American Society of Hematology, Dr Ken Kaushansky, and I will briefly outline the positions of ASH and EHA with respect to governance.

The EHA Board is an enthusiastic propo-nent of good governance and is keen to optimize the way in which good gover-nance principles are integrated into EHA procedures. You are all cordially invited to attend our policy forum and to join us in the discussion.

Willem FibbeEHA President


ContentsPresident’s Message 2

Copenhagen June 12-15, the 13th Congress 4

Jean Bernard Lifetime Achievement Award 6

Molecular Hemopoiesis Workshop 8

José Carreras Lecture 2008 9

Vodcasts in Copenhagen 10

EHA-ASH International Fellowship Awards 2008 10

Martin Bergö: EHA fellow receives EU grant 11

Editorial: Hematology practice in the new Europe 12

Tutorial Paris: report 14

Wine and Health: Are vintages important? 15

Journal statistic 17

Present members of the EHA Board of Directors 18

Upcoming congresses 18

EHA Executive Office 19

One of EHA’s areas of focus is to

promote the career development of

clinical and experimental hematologists

and to develop a fellowship program

accordingly.

> In addition to EHA’s existing fellow-ship program, EHA has therefore created a Partner Fellowship Program for junior researchers from new accession and EU candidate countries.

In this way EHA hopes not only to sup-port the career development of junior re-searchers from these countries, but also to create an inter-institutional network of collaboration.

Junior researchers from new accession and EU candidate countries will get the opportunity to carry out research at a western European research center for a three year period.

The deadline for the first letter of intent is June 30, 2008.

For eligibility and submission details please visit www.ehaweb.org.

NEW! EHA Partner Fellowship Program

Sharing knowledge and expertise and creating strong, dynamic networksfor hematology is the EHA mission. In addition to EHA's existingFellowship Program a new program has been developed for juniorresearchers from new accession and EU candidate countries.

EHA Partner Fellowship Program

fellowships 2008COVER4kant:Opmaak 1 11-04-2008 11:00 Pagina 1


The 13th Congress of the European Hematology

AssociationThis year the 13th Congress of the

European Hematology Association will

be held in Copenhagen (June 12 – 15).

The Scientific Program Committee and

Education Committee have devised an

attractive program with experts

presenting state-of-the-art education

sessions for scientists, clinicians and

hematologists in training. The high

quality scientific and educational

sessions take place against the

background of the friendly and

appealing city of Copenhagen.

> From the large number of abstracts submitted, a challenging program of si-multaneous oral sessions and poster sessions has been selected. The five best abstracts will be presented during the Presidential Symposium on June 14. The fourth EHA-ASH Joint Symposium will focus on the relationship between aca-demia and pharma and is held the same day. The ESH-EHA Joint Symposium on June 13 focuses on communication with transplant patients.

The Molecular Hematopoiesis Workshop, which was held for the first time last year, was an overwhelming success and is once again included in this year’s pro-gram. The workshop presents cutting edge hematological science in a new and exciting way.

The Soren Kierkegaard Square

The waterfront

The Bella Center


The 13th Congress of the European Hematology

AssociationThe winner of the José Carreras – EHA Award of 2008 is John Goldman, who will present his lecture “Chronic myeloid leu-kemia - yesterday, today and tomorrow" on June 13. Prior to this lecture the win-ners of the Fellowship Program 2008 will be announced.

For the first time a new award, the EHA Jean Bernard Lifetime Achievement Award, will be presented. The winner of this award is Dieter Hoelzer for his life-time contribution to the advancement of hematology.

The congress program is accredited for Continuing Medical Education (CME) by the EHA-CME Unit and has been ap-proved for accreditation by the American Medical Association.

This year’s social program will take place in the Øksnehallen a beautiful, restored warehouse in the very heart of Copenha-gen. The evening starts with smooth jazz, ’wild Vikings’ and a standing buffet, and will continue with a DJ to entice every-body to the dance floor.

If you are not able to join us this year, we hope we can welcome you at the 14th Congress of EHA in Berlin! If you are coming to Copenhagen we trust that this number one hematology congress in Eu-rope will provide you with an exciting in-teraction with your peers and induce new ideas for your work.

Niels BorregaardCongress President 2008

Gilles SallesChair Scientific Program Committee 13th Congress

The Arken Museum of Modern Art

The Black Diamond

The Øksnehallen in Copenhagen


EHA Jean Bernard Lifetime Achievement Award for Dieter HoelzerEHA has taken the initiative to establish a new award to honor outstanding

physicians and scientists for their lifetime contribution to the advancement of

hematology. The award will be presented for the first time during the 13th

Annual Meeting in Copenhagen to Dieter Hoelzer.

Dieter Hoelzer, the winner of the EHA Jean Bernard Lifetime Achievement Award EHA Jean Bernhard Lifetime Achievement Award (Artist: Iris Le Rütte)

Dieter HoelzerDieter Hoelzer is Professor of Medicine and Hematology. He gained his medical education at the Universities of Münster, Munich, Vienna and Freiburg where he received his PhD in Clinical Physiology. In 1984 he became Professor of Medicine and Head of the Department of Hematol-ogy/Oncology, Rheumatology, Infectious Diseases at the University of Frankfurt.His main research field is Acute Leuke-mia. He founded the German Adult ALL Study Group (GMALL) which so far con-

ducted seven multicenter studies in over a 100 participating hospitals, where more than 4000 patients were treated. He is also involved in stem cell research and currently in a gene therapy trial for Chronic Granulomatous Disease.

Professor Hoelzer was Vice President of the European Society for Clinical Investiga-tion. He was founder and President of the European Hematology Association (2001-2003) and is currently Vice President of the European School of Haematology and

the Competence Network Leukemias Ger-many, “Kompetenz Netzwerk Leukämien”.

Professor Hoelzer received several awards including those of the German Cancer Society, the “Deutsche Krebshil-fe”, for cancer research, the Johann-Georg-Zimmermann-Price for cancer research and the San Salvatore Award for cancer research and cancer therapy.

He is also member of several advisory boards. He was Visiting Professor at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, Los Ange-les, McGill University, Montreal, John Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore and The Ohio State University, Columbus.

He is author or co-author of more than 500 peer-reviewed publications, co-au-thor of international text books and au-thor of several monographies.


> Jean A Bernard (May 26, 1907 - April 17, 2006) was a French physician and hematologist. For over fifty years Jean Bernard has been a promoter, a guide and a refer-

allow platelets to stick to blood vessels and form clots. It leads to bleeding in chil-dren and is now known as the Jean Ber-nard-Soulier Syndrome. In 1954 he creat-ed the Institute for Leukemia on the Hôpital Saint Louis campus with the aim to foster teaching and research in Hema-tology and was head of the hematology department of Hôpital Saint Louis in 1957.

In all, professorJean Bernard published 14 textbooks and monographs on hema-tology. He was elected at the Académie Française on March 18, 1976 and elected president of the Académie Française des Sciences in 1981 and was president of the Executive Board of INSERM from 1967-1980. In 1981 he was elected as a member of Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts in the Department of Medical Sciences. In 1983, he was awarded the Artois-Baillet Latour Health Prize. He was also president of the Eth-ics Committee in Sciences and Health (1983-1992).

ence in hematology. His life was dominated by three poles of interest: - medicine, sci-ence and humanity – in the perspective of joining these three aspects and skills in the treatment of patients.

After graduating in medicine in Paris in 1926, Bernard started his laboratory train-ing with the bacteriologist Gaston Ramon at the Pasteur Institute in 1929. He was first professor of medecine in 1949, oncol-ogy in 1956, and in blood diseases in 1961. In 1932, Bernard gave the first description of the use of high dosage radiotherapy in the treatment of Hodgkin’s disease. Bernard’s research ranged from the dem-onstration of neoplastic nature of leukemia (1933-1937) to the formulation of methods of treatment.

In 1947, he and Dr Marcel Bessis obtained the first complete remission in leukemia with blood transfusion exchange. In 1948, Bernard and Dr Jean-Pierre Soulier de-scribed a hereditary syndrome that did not

ESH-EHA Hematology Tutorial on

Chairs:

B BainS McCann

G Zini

Dublin Ireland November 14 - 15 2008

www.esh.org / www.ehaweb.org

Myeloid MalignanciesThis workshop is accredited by the European Hematology Association CME system

TUTORIAL dublin:Opmaak 1 07-02-2008 12:09 Pagina 3


The organizers would like to invite you to join the second

Molecular Hemopoiesis Workshop to be held on Friday June

13 in Copenhagen, from14:15 till 17:30.

> Again the workshop will be divided in three sections, focusing on transcription, normal and leukemic stem cells, and signal transduction. Each session will consist of brief talks describing ongoing research from leading groups, with an emphasis on recent and unpublished data.

We encourage participants to have additional discussions afterwards. Snacks and drinks will be provided.Looking forward to seeing you there!

The organizers: Tariq Enver, Tony Green, Daniel Tenen and Ivo Touw

Join the Molecular Hemopoiesis Workshop

Tariq Enver

Tony Green

Daniel Tenen

Ivo Touw

13th CONGRESS OF

THE EUROPEAN HEMATOLOGY ASSOCIATION

Molecular HemopoiesisWorkshop

Organizers:Tariq EnverTony GreenDan TenenIvo Touw

Copenhagen Bella Center Friday June 13, 2008 14:15 - 17:30

13th congres COPEN-BOVEN:12th congres vienna a4 06-03-2008 11:12 Pagina 1


John Goldman selected for José Carreras Lecture 13th CongressThe EHA Board has selected John Goldman for the José Carreras Lecture at the

13th Congress in Copenhagen. Professor Goldman was until 2004 Chairman of the

Department of Haematology at Imperial College in London, Director of the

Leukaemia Research Fund Centre for Adult Leukaemia and Clinical Director of the

Haematology Department at the Hammersmith Hospitals NHS Trust. Thereafter

was appointed a Fogarty Scholar at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda

USA from 2004 to 2006.

> As Emeritus Professor at Imperial College London he now combines a wide range of clinical, research and teaching responsibilities. His professional interests include oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes, the action of tyrosine kinase inhib-itors in vitro and in vivo and molecular monitoring of response to treatment in chronic myeloid leukemia.Professor Goldman is editor of Bone Mar-row Transplantation, a former editor of The Haematology Journal, and an associ-ate editor of the European Journal of Haematology. He is also an editorial board member of numerous other journals and, during the course of his career, has pub-lished over 600 papers in peer-reviewed journals. As well as being the founding president of the British Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation, Professor Goldman is also a former president of the International Society for Experimental

Hematology, the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation and EHA (1996-1998). He is a member of the EHA Governance Committee.

Professor Goldman's José Carreras Lec-ture is titled ”Chronic myeloid leukemia - yesterday, today and tomorrow”. Below a summary of this lecture. Recent progress in treating CMLFor most of the 20th century treatment of patients with Ph-positive CML was direct-ed principally towards palliation - control of symptoms without clear evidence of prolongation of life. One important land-mark was the introduction in 1980 of allo-geneic stem cell transplantation to treat chronic phase patients, which proved eventually to be 'curative' for the majority of the patients who survived the procedure.

Another important landmark was the ob-servation that patients who did relapse af-ter allo-SCT could be restored to durable complete remission by donor lymphocyte infusions. A third important development was the introduction of interferon-alfa. All these efforts to treat new patients with CML were eclipsed by the introduction of imatinib, the first tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), in 1998. We now know that 70% of patients with newly diagnosed BCR-ABL-positive CML who receive initial treatment with imatinib will achieve durable com-plete cytogenetic remission and become long term survivors. Many of these will have no detectable evidence of BCR-ABL transcripts after six years of therapy. Many unresolved issues remain. Is the ac-quisition of a BCR-ABL gene the original molecular lesion in CML? What is the ba-sis of genomic instability in this form of leukemia? Why does the disease inexora-bly progress in the absence of effective treatment? How should patients receiving treatment with a TKI be monitored? How should one define the TKI non-respond-er? How often is resistance actually due to expansion of a Ph-positive clone with a kinase domain mutation? How should re-sistant patients be treated? What is the role of immunotherapy in the 21st centu-ry? Some of these questions will be ad-dressed by review of current data.

John Goldman

John Goldman

The EHA Board selects a winner of the EHA José Carreras Award every year. The presentation of the award is made in the Welcome Ceremony of the An-nual Congress in which the winner is invited to give a lecture of 30 minutes. Candidates for this award are basic scientists and clinicians in alternating years and the selection of the winner is based on a number of criteria includ-ing making their contribution to the field of hematology, area of expertise, eligibility, other awards, gender and country of origin. The selection com-mittee of this award consists of the EHA President and Board and the chair of the Scientific Program Committee.José Carreras

Vodcasts in CopenhagenEHA members and individuals attending the EHA 13th Congress in Copenhagen will again be able to access ‘video-on-

demand’-casting via the EHA website. This service was offered for the first time at the 12th Congress in Vienna last year

and was highly appreciated by members and congress participants; the webcasts were viewed over 1,300 times in the

first few months after the congress.

> The educational benefits of vodcasting, or webcasting, are significant; it provides congress participants and EHA mem-bers with the option to listen to and watch sessions presented at the congress, at a time and place of their choosing. It is pos-sible to listen to talks while travelling and they can be reviewed on multiple occasions. Lastly, vodcasting represents a valuable outreach and distance learning tool.

All congress participants and EHA members will receive a per-sonal login and password to view the vodcasted sessions. As with the webcasts, the vodcasts will be available from www.ehaweb.org for two years following the close of the meeting.

Vodcasts, also called video podcasts are a type of audio broadcasting on the internet that delivers on demand audio and video clips. Vodcasts can be viewed on PC’s and portable multi-media players (such as video iPods). The software required can be downloaded free of charge from the internet.

The European Hematology Association (EHA) and the Ameri-can Society of Hematology (ASH) have selected Lapo Alinari, MD, and Serena Kimi Perna, MD, as the recipients of the sec-ond annual EHA-ASH International Fellowship Award.

> Dr Alinari, of the Séragnoli Institute of Hematology and Medical Oncology in Italy, will pursue his research project, Role of the Protein Arginine Methyltransferase 5 (PRMT5) in B Cell Transformation at The Ohio State University. “This experience will enhance my ability to share and discuss my research with colleagues, which will strengthen my communication skills, challenge my original research ideas, and spark new insight into potential treatment approaches,” said Dr Alinari, who earned his degree in Medicine and Surgery at the University of Florence. Dr Alinari will with Dr John Byrd.

In July, Dr Perna will travel to Baylor College of Medicine to contin-ue her work in gene therapy and lymphoproliferative disorders. “I am strongly convinced that an EHA-ASH International Fellowship Award would be of tremendous help in supporting the early stage of my career as a physician-scientist,” stated Dr Perna, who is cur-rently a hematology resident at the San Raffaele Hospital, also in Italy. Dr Perna will work with Dr Malcolm Brenner in Houston.

European researchers win EHA-ASH International Fellowship Award

The EHA-ASH International Fellowship Award provides hematolo-gists in training or in the early phase of their careers with the op-portunity to pursue research in a new environment, gaining in-valuable experience. Awardees from North America and Europe receive $75,000 to fund their research at the selected host insti-tute. The fellowship, which encourages increased collaboration between scientists, also grants recipients additional travel stipends to attend both the EHA and ASH annual meetings.

Lapo AlinariSerena Kimi Perna



EHA fellowship winner 2006, Martin Bergö, receives 2 1,7 million research grant from EUMartin Bergö, Associate Professor at the Sahlgrenska Academy at Göteborg University and EHA-José Carreras Young

Investigator Fellowship winner in 2006, is to receive a grant of € 1,7 million from the EU for studies into cancer and

accelerated ageing.

Martin Bergö

> The funding, called the Starting In-vestigator Grant, is awarded for the first time by the newly-established research funding body, the European Research Council (ERC). The aim of the ERC is to promote scientific excellence in Europe by supporting the best researchers with relatively large research grants. Only a small percentage of nearly 10,000 re-searchers who submitted an application last spring was successful.

“This grant means that we are regarded as occupying the absolute cutting edge of European research in our field, and it is important for both the Sahlgrenska Academy and Göteborg University. For me personally the grant means that I can

“My vision is that the research will lead to a better understanding of the causes of cancer and progeria and to find new treatments. We also hope that our stud-ies will provide us with new information about the factors that govern normal ageing,” adds Martin Bergö. These stud-ies are also likely to provide insight into hemotological disorders such as bone marrow failure and leukemia.

The EHA-José Carreras Young Investiga-tor Fellowship was awarded to Martin Bergö in 2006 for his research: “Role of each of the four enzymes that posttrans-lationally modify the CAAX proteins in the development of two different Ras-in-duced haematological malignancies.”

Please be encouraged to send in your scenic photographs for future newsletter covers (size: standing).The EHA offers € 100 for the photograph that will be chosen as cover photo, starting next issue.

May 2008 November 2007 May 2007 November 2006

Cover photographs

United States Denmark Switzerland Italy Marc Rudoltz (USA) Martin Lorenzen (DK) Karin Amrein (CH) Shaun McCann (IR)

focus more closely on my research dur-ing the next five years and expand my re-search team,” says Martin Bergö.


Editorial

'Hematology practice in the new Europe'Why should hematological disorders reflect sociological change in the world

and what are the implications for health services and education of trainees?

For many European countries the result of colonization, from a medical point

of view, has been the migration of post colonial populations, with many

hematological disorders, to the ‘mother’ country. This migration has taken

place for many years since World War II but for some countries with no

colonial past the migration has been recent and dramatic in terms of

introducing disorders which were virtually unknown and which now have the

potential to impose a significant health care burden.

> The founding of the ‘Common Mar-ket’ and subsequently the ‘European Union’ has facilitated movement between citizens of member states and the recent enlargement of the EU has enhanced this migration. Coupled with this has

been the migration to the EU of political and economic migrants for Africa and Asia. In many European countries health services have been developed to deal with the complexities of hematological problems associated with migratory pop-

ulations and hemoglobinopathies such as sickle cell disease have been incorpo-rated into health services for a number of decades.

The challenges are not only medical but involve sociological and broad health care issues. In England, for example, universal screening of all pregnant wom-en for hemoglobinopathies used to be offered only in parts of the country with high prevalence, but is now universally offered throughout the country. Neonatal screening in a number of countries to-gether with optimal medical care of af-fected children has been shown to be ef-fective with very low mortality rates. As stated by Roberts and de Montalembert in 2007 the majority of patients with Hb SS disease is managed in hospital be-cause of the need for access to parental analgesia, investigations and transfu-sion. More recently many countries are endeavoring to encourage the movement of treatment to the primary care setting.


Let me present the perspective from a country where the problem of diagnosis and treatment of hemoglobinopathies has been a very recent event. In Ireland the immigrant population now repre-sents about 10% of the population. This change has taken place over a very short time period, approximately 10 years, probably the most rapid in Europe. In a country without a history of inward mi-gration but a very definite memory of emigration the landscape has been radi-cally altered. To give some idea of the scale of the change we can look at the laboratory diagnoses and neonatal screening requests. Figure 1 shows the increase in non- EU, USA immigrant he-moglobinopathy screens in a large teach-ing hospital in Dublin between 1994 and 2003. The steady rise in hemoglobinopa-thy screens mirrors the population changes.

Like wise the pattern in maternity hospi-tals has totally changed in recent years (the vast majority of births in Ireland take place in specialist maternity hospitals). In one large maternity hospital in 2002 the number of non-EU mothers deliver-ing was approximately 10% with about half of these coming from Africa. Over 850 requests were made for screening for hemoglobinopathies. The percentage of mothers being delivered in a large maternity hospital in Dublin in 2006 is shown in figure 2 and indicated that ap-proximately 10% of mothers are from Af-rica or the Middle East/Asia.

The Irish government has attempted to disperse immigrant population through-out the country to for obvious social rea-sons. This means that patients with HbSS - there are over 250 homozygous

children in Ireland - may attend hospitals and clinics where there is little experi-ence in dealing with their problems. Medical, nursing and other health care workers may have received training out-side Ireland in countries where hemo-globinopathies are well recognized but education of other staff who may not have had this experience is extremely important. Whereas children tend to go to regional pediatric centers in the case of adults this may not be true. Following on the experience in the EU a better out-come can be expected for children with Hb SS but this in turn will lead to a larger number of adults in the population, which in turn will create a demand on medical services.

Trainees in hematology together with nursing and other health care workers need education in the diagnosis and management of hemoglobinopathies but the real battle will be to win over the pol-iticians to provide adequate funding. One

wonders if the lack of support for re-search and clinical care for hemoglobin-opathies reflects the fact that these dis-orders are limited to immigrants and does this in some mirror the dearth of interest and research into HIV infection in the early 1980s.

Constant pressure on government and advocacy by hematologists and all health care workers will be necessary to influ-ence politicians especially in countries where these disorders are relatively re-cent. Any new contractual arrangements for doctors which attempts to restrain advocacy on the part of patients should be resisted.

Shaun McCannEditor-in-Chief

Irene Roberts and Marianne de Mon-talembert. Sickle cell disease as a paradigm of immigration haematol-ogy: new challenges for hematolo-gists in Europe. Haematologica/The Hematology Journal, 2007;92 (07) 865 -871. Figure 2 adapted from Coombe Women’s Hospital Annual Clinical Report 2006.I would like to thank Dr Corrina Mc-Mahon Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children, Dublin for helpful advice.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Percentage of Country of Birth & Nationality in a major DublinMaternity Hospital

EU

Rest of Europe(including Russia)

Middle East

Rest of Asia

United States

Africa

Australia

Uncoded

86,1%

4,8%5,8%

0,3% 0,7% 0,4%1,1%0,8%

20,000

1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003

Rest of World Immigrants

Hbopathy Requests15,000

10,000

5,000

0

Non-EU, USA immigrants vs. Haemoglobinopathy Screens,1994 to 2003


Social evening during 13th congress> The EHA would like to welcome you to the social evening on Saturday June 14. This great networking event will take place in the beautiful old restored ware-house Øksnehallen, located in the heart of Copenhagen.

The evening starts with smooth jazz, wild Vikings and a standing buffet, and will continue with a DJ to entice everybody to the dance fl oor!

The price of this event is € 35 (drinks and buffet included) and tickets can be ac-quired through your congress application form and at the registration desk in the Bella Center.

The Øksnehallen in Copenhagen

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211211

722722

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474474474474438438438438422422422422

10431043

1352135213831383

14701470

Manuscripts arrived Manuscripts accepted

Manuscripts refused Manuscripts solicited

Haematologica / The Hematology JournalOverview of submitted manuscripts from 2004 till 2008

rejected


Wine and health: Are vintages important?

> All wine drinkers, and I include most of my medical colleagues, are faced with this question sooner or later; what makes a good vintage? Are good vintages found in all wine-growing areas in the same year? How can one remember the good years? I suppose the last question is the most important for the average wine drinker and certainly is the most diffi cult to answer.

What makes a good vintage is a combi-nation of the ideal growing conditions, the correct balance between sun and rain and the decision of the oenologist to pick the grapes at the right time. The oenologist cannot control weather but can dictate the time to pick the grapes. Climatic conditions that are ideal for vines may not be suitable for humans. Snow in the winter may be excellent for vines as the snow melts slowly the mois-ture penetrate into the soil. This will be good for the vines as later in the year the roots will travel deep under the ground to fi nd water. This helps to produce grapes of good quality.

Lots of sun in the last month before the harvest is clearly what the oenologist wants and the great fear is rain and moisture near harvest time as this inhib-its full ripening and encourages the

growth of fungus. Heavy rain and even hail may occur in June or July and may prove catastrophic as large areas of grapes may be irreversibly damaged.

What are the experts predicting for 2007? Well you’ll be glad to hear that overall it was an excellent vintage. In Bordeaux it was a mixed vintage. The summer was cloudy and wet white and sweet wines should be good according to James Suckling in the Wine Spectator. He is

In the last newsletter I wrote about the presumed benefi ts of resveretrol in

wine in preventing cardiovascular disease. Since then evidence was presented

in the Journal of Carcinogenesis by Coral Lamartiniere and colleagues from the

departments of pharmacology and toxicology and pathology at the University of

Alabama in Birmingham in a study partly funded by the NCI that resveretrol

diminishes the risk of prostate cancer in mice. Unfortunately the amount of

resveretrol given to the mice was equivalent to a bottle of wine per day which is

not advisable. The leading author Lamartiniere drinks a glass of red wine in the

evening and Jacob Gaffney, writing in the Wine Spectator goes one better as he

drinks a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon every night and takes resveretrol

supplements every day!

also very optimistic about the wines of Piedmonte and even more enthusiastic about Tuscany. Marco Pallanti from Cas-tello di Ama, near Radda in Chianti is quoted as saying;’ The relatively high grade of alcohol with good acidity points to a wine that will age well’. Bruce Sand-erson says wine quality will be variable and depend very much on individual wine makers’ ability to control fungus. He also promises very good wines from Germany. In the Rhône valley, accord-ing to James Molesworth conditions were excellent and superb wines should be produced in the south but the north fared similarly to the rest of France. The yields of red grapes were down in Rioja, Navarra and Priorat which will result in higher prices but the Albarino-based whites from Galicia should be excellent according to Jacob Gaffney. Yields were down and again fungus was a problem in Portugal. Some Port shippers say they may make vintage quality wines!

So unfortunately there is no easy way to remember if a vintage was good or not. A little knowledge about the climatic con-ditions perhaps linked to pleasant mem-ories of autumn sunshine may help!

Ciao.

Giovanni Morelli

Castella di Ama, a top quality producer of Chaint Classico

Membership Survey 2008: We need your opinion!> In the second half of 2008, a survey will be held among all EHA members. Knowing how EHA is perceived by you – the member - is the basis for developing programs, policies and activities. Are we on the right track? Is this what the EHA mem-ber expects? How can we improve?

EHA Members 2700

Member participation in the EHA Annual Congress

2007 Vienna: 59 %2006 Amsterdam: 31%

Benefits of EHA Membership

- Subscription to Haematologica/ The Hematology Journal (impact factor 5.032) - Reduction of € 180 on the individual registration fee for the EHA Annual Congress (junior members receive a reduction of € 105). - Eligible to apply for EHA Research Fellowships & Grants - Entitled to apply for a scholarship to attend ESH-EHA Scientific Workshops - EHA Newsletter - Access to the webcast of the EHA annual congress - Access to the EHA membership database

> The EHA Newsletter encourages its readers to share their opinions through letters to the editor.We would like to hear your ideas on any topic in hematology. We would also appreciate your views on the Newsletter, favor-able or not!Letters must be short (maximum of 300 words) and may be edited.If you are interested in having your Letter to the Editor published, please be sure to include your full name and accurate contact in-formation. Anonymous letters to the editor cannot be published.E-mail us at [email protected]

The EHA Newsletter EditorsShaun McCannCatherine Lacombe

‘Letter to the Editor’

Shaun McCann Catherine Lacombe


In September you will receive an e-mail with your login details to the online membership survey. Please be so kind to spend a few minutes and let us know what you think!

Ivo TouwChair EHA Membership Committee


The ESH-EHA Tutorial on Anemia and Myelodysplasia welcomed 101 participants

ESH – EHA tutorial on diagnostic work-up of hematological malignancies

“Focus on Anemia and Myelodysplasia”

> The Paris Tutorial focused for the first time on topics – anemia and myelo-dysplasia - not previously covered. There were over 90 participants and faculty members from more than 20 countries (Australia, Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Sin-gapore, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, United Kingdom and Venezuela). Many participants had already taken part in one or more previous Tutori-als in Rome, further underlying the suc-cess of this well established initiative. Over the years, Tutorials have developed through close collaboration between Gina Zini (Rome), Barbara Bain (London) and Robin Foà (Rome), under the umbrella of ESH and EHA, with the aim of offering a modern course dedicated to the diagnos-tic work-up of acute and chronic hemato-

logical malignancies based on the use of the most advanced technologies and in-ternet facilities. Tutorials have been orga-nized over three days with formal didactic lectures, as well as on tutored clinical cases. Self-learning and self-evaluation sessions are also incorporated in the pro-gram. A final session devoted to discus-sion of results, overall satisfaction of the attendees and statistical evaluations con-cludes the Tutorial.

In Paris, for the first time, a portable vot-ing box system was successfully utilized. This makes the delivery of the Tutorials much simpler than in the past, when mul-tiple platforms were made available for the participants who thus worked in small groups. This voting box system simplifies the organization of Tutorials in different countries in Europe and outside Europe largely utilizing the available and valuable

An ESH-EHA Tutorial on the ‘Diagnostic Work-Up of Hematological Malignancies’ took place in Paris on February 29 –

March 2, 2008. Entitled “Focus on Anemia and Myelodysplasia”, this represented the 5th classic Tutorial following the

pattern established for the previous four held annually at the Catholic University in Rome since 2004 which have centered

on various aspects of the diagnostic work-up of myeloid and lymphoid malignancies.

material gathered from the classic Tutori-als. In this respect, a Tutorial on myeloid malignancies with available material (type II Tutorial) is already planned for Novem-ber 14-15, 2008 in Dublin and another one on lymphoid malignancies is scheduled for autumn 2009 in Barcelona. Another classic (type I) Tutorial - “Focus on Chron-ic Malignancies” - is instead scheduled for February 20-22, 2009 in Paris.

Finally, cases from this last Tutorial on anemia and myelodysplasia, as for the previous ones, will be gradually uploaded onto the EHA website www.ehaweb.org as both clinical cases and test cases through which CME points can be gained.

Robin FoàUniversity ‘La Sapienza’Rome


ColophonThe EHA Newsletter is published by the European Hematology Association twice a year. Membership of the European Hematology Association includes subscription to the EHA Newsletter.

EditorsEditor-in-Chief Shaun McCannEditor Catherine LacombeEditorial Assistant Petra StorkReview Editor Irene Roberts

Photography & IllustrationsMarc Rudoltz, coverJim Cogan, page 12Rik Craenmehr, page 19

PrintingDrukkerij BibloVanGerwen, ’s-Hertogenbosch

Contact editorsFor general remarks, questions and suggestions e-mail [email protected]

Present members of the EHA BoardWillem Fibbe – President 2007-2009 – The Netherlands

Robin Foà – President Elect 2007-2009 – Italy

Eva Hellström-Lindberg – Past President 2007-2009 – Sweden

Hartmut Döhner – Treasurer 2007-2010 – Germany

Irene Roberts – Secretary 2006-2009 – United Kingdom

Catherine Lacombe – 2005-2009 – France

Cristina Meccuci – 2004-2008 – Italy

Christine Chomienne – 2007-2011 – France

Erik Berntorp – 2005-2009 – Sweden

Ivo Touw – 2006-2010 – The Netherlands

Clara Camaschella – 2007-2011 – Italy

Radek Skoda – 2006-2010 – Switzerland

Ulrich Jäger – 2006-2010 - Austria

Upcoming Congresses

> 13th Congress of the EHA Date: June 12-15, 2008 Place: Copenhagen, Denmark Congress President: Prof. N Borregaard

> 14th Congress of the EHA Date: June 4-7, 2009 Place: Berlin, Germany Congress President: Prof. R Hehlmann

> 15th Congress of the EHA Date: June 10 – 13, 2010Place: Barcelona, SpainCongress President: Prof. J San Miguel

Barcelona

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Newsletter May 2008