Highlights from Day 4 of 66th ASH Annual Meeting

The 66th ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition was held from December 7-10, 2024, in San Diego, California.

It brought together over 30,000 health professionals, clinicians, researchers, educators, and industry leaders from around the world. As the most comprehensive hematology event of the year, the meeting offered a unique opportunity for attendees to engage with the latest advancements in blood-related disorders, treatment innovations, and groundbreaking research.

The conference featured a wide range of sessions, including scientific presentations, educational symposia, and hands-on workshops, designed to foster collaboration and knowledge exchange across various sectors of hematology. Participants had access to cutting-edge research findings, emerging therapies, and best practices in patient care, making it a vital event for professionals looking to stay at the forefront of the field.

Doctors and healthcare professionals shared their highlights on social media:

Rahul Banerjee:

“That’s a wrap! Thanks ASH Hematology for encouraging these conversations as always (>25K tweets!) – Twitter is always where I learn the most from my colleagues and realize which sessions I missed.
The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society – looking forward to ‘competing’ again next year!”

Naveen Pemmaraju:

“I. Love. This.! ASH Kudos to ASH Hematology team for an amazing annual meeting!!

I’ve been ASH’d. It’s a good thing.”

Nico Gagelmann:

“No hematology without friendship.

Thanks ASH for uniting so many young hematologists worldwide.”

Beth Faiman:

“Here I feel like a newscaster, but I am just chatting with my friend Donna Catamera at ASH24!
I’m back Cleveland Clinic but can’t stop thinking of the exciting presentations in myeloma and amyloidosis. It was a privilege to be ‘in the room where it happens!’”

Nihar Desai:

“It was an honour to receive the ASH24 abstract achievement award for 3 of my abstracts.

The alloBMT team Princess Margaret Cancer Centre had 2 oral presentations + 9 posters to present. I’m proud to work at one of the largest transplant centers in the world with the kindest colleagues.”

Lucia Masarova:

“Unique way of approaching Myelofibrosis with Tregs; safe and promising efficiency with significant improvement of early satiety, fatigue & MPN symptoms. Excited to learn more about immune deregulation and how to modulate it to improve on patients outcomes!”

Kelly Meza:

“I just had the most incredible experience meeting Dr. Jenifer-Afranie. She was our outstanding coach for Family 24 at ASH24.

Her passion and dedication to Sickle Cell are genuinely inspiring. I feel so fortunate to have had such an amazing mentor at ASH—this journey has been nothing short of unforgettable and incredibly empowering.”

Travis Fleming:

“Had a blast presenting our work yesterday at ASH24! Feeling especially grateful for my mentors, colleagues and great friends who made this possible. A big thank you to Vijay Sankaran, Richard Voit, Michael Gundry, Lara Wahlster and Maateusz Antoszewski for their guidance and support.

Also a special thank you to Jennifer Trowbridge for showcasing our work today at Best of ASH24!! Stay tuned as we soon share our novel insights into the mechanisms driving high-risk leukemias!”

Uma Borate:

“Myeloid malignancy academics( MMA)s after dark ASH24.”

Juanjo Garces:

“Another ASH24 ends, and here are my self-thoughts for my inner self:
– Genomics is here to stay, but w/o forgetting the disease biology
– Liquid biopsies (!)
– Big ideas (and changes) rely on collaborative efforts…
– … and a ton of reading. I need to protect time to read!”

Randolph B Lyde:

“This was such a great experience, I’m so happy to have been invited to speak with such an amazing Hematologist-Oncologist Jorge Cortes.”

Shaikha Alqahtani:

“ASH’d out. Thank you for the friendship bracelets and for the heme themed ERAS. Until next time. Thank you for great time ASH.”

Jordan Pavlic:

“Grateful beyond words to my mentor, Dr. Jan Nolta, for taking me to my first big conference in San Diego. As a first gen student, this experience taught me so much annd opened so many doors. Huge thanks also to Geralyn for her amazing mentorship. Feeling so inspired!”

David J. Young:

“Farewell ASH24. It has been a real pleasure, a great source of information, and an amazing opportunity for collaborations.

I’ve enjoyed sharing my experiences, and I only regret I could not share even more of the amazing hematology with everyone.

Raul Cordoba:

“ASH24 has come to its end. It’s been a very rich life experience. San Diego is my favorite ASH venue. Science, friends, and a lot of hematology. I wish all delegates safe travels back home.”

Tommaso Perini:

“So happy and honored for the opportunity to present my work on mitochondrial protease CLPP at ASH24 !

Thanks for the support of all the friends and the positive feedbacks of great scientists!

Stay tuned for the complete story!”

Saarang Deshpande:

“A brief thread on gene therapy for Hemophilia A (HA) and B (HB).

I am happy to share our systematic review now out in Blood Advances, so let’s discuss gene therapy for hemophilia.

Some figures from which were features in the ASH24 program!

We show point estimates of the efficacy of gene therapies on annualized bleed and infusion rates

Relative to factor prophylaxis (pre/post comparison), gene therapy reduces bleeding rates

Heterogeneity is primarily driven by a few phase 1 studies with outlier effect sizes.

The notable liver toxicity rates vary markedly across trials, probably due to vector dose and immunosuppressive prophylaxis

Trials also used different cutoffs for what was considered liver toxicity

For examples, Hem B trials:

Finally we discuss the durability of gene therapies
– HA: 55.8% of their peak FVIII level at 24 months
– HB gene therapies: 95.7% of their peak FIX level at 24 months

These are obviously crude measures but do highlight the difference in shared decision-making between Hem A and B.

What needs to improve before gene therapies can become more widely adopted?

Most trials exclude PwHA/B with anti-capsid Ab or inhibitors. Anti-AAV5 Abs led to exclusion of 14% of the potential population in GENEr8-1. Eligibility needs to widen.

Prevention and management of anti-capsid immune response, which is most notably hepatotoxicity resulting in loss of transgene expression. A recent paper offered guidance on this:

Because the ultimate goal of gene therapy is one-time cure, long-term factor durability is crucial. Given the development of anti-AAV neutralizing antibodies post-gene therapy, we’d anticipate inability to receive another AAV-based therapy unless advancements overcome this.

Cost is critical. With gene therapies priced ~$2-3 million, it’s unlikely to be adopted outside of well-insured populations, which already have access to factor ppx and non-factor therapy. Most were not on emi (for HA) or EHL factor, so comparisons are indirect at best.

Time will tell on how well gene therapies can support PwH to achieving a hemophilia-free mind

It’s an exciting time to enter training as a classical hematologist!”

Masooma Rana:

“Proud to have presented my first poster at ASH24 on the mutational landscape of PV and to contribute to 12 abstracts from both Stanford BMT and CT, Mayo Clinic Hematology-Oncology Fellowship! Grateful for all my mentors who got me to this point!”

Ghadeer Dawwas:

“Such an incredible conference with colleagues and trainees thank you ASH for the invitation to moderate with Anna Parks meet ASH scholar awards recipients and Alumni, fortunate to have been mentored by Adam Cuker, Penn Medicine, VUMC Insights, VUMC.”

Ingrid Glimelius:

“ASH24 Highlights from Jennifer Tovbridge
– CLL first line, AMPLIFY, favors Acala+Ven+ Obi vs chemo and Acala + Ven
– MCL first line ENRICH favored R-Ibrutinib over R-Chema (I am very proud 4th author and responsible in Sweden)
– RWD on CAR-T in transformed indolentNHL=good.”

Urvi Shah:

“Thank you Yelak Biru, Joseph Mikhael, IMF for supporting Medical Student Scholars! Congratulations to my mentee Divya Rath who presented our research to estimate the proportion(10-19%) of MM cases attributable to obesity.”

Cihan Ay:

“ASH24 in San Diego was very special for me. I was honored and happy to give an invited talk. It was great meeting friends and colleagues and enjoying the terrific science. Wish everyone a safe journey back home.”

Seethal Jacob:

“Thanks once again for the wonderful time with friends and colleagues, ASH! ASH24 was a hit. Until next time San Diego.”

Byung-June Park:

“The study on biomarker correlates and clinical activity of cevostamab, the efficacy in the prior BsAb group was significantly lower compared to the prior CAR-T and ADC groups (ORR: 10%, 73%, and 60%, respectively). Additionally, baseline sBCMA levels were lowest in the prior BsAb group, likely due to the cumulative exposure to multiple BCMA-targeted therapies (median number: 2). The prior BsAb group also showed the highest frequency of PD-1+ and TIGIT+ CD8+ T cells, suggesting that T-cell dysfunction and immune suppression may have contributed to the reduced efficacy of cevostamab.

Despite a 12-week washout period, the prior BsAb group had undergone more intensive pretreatment compared to the other groups. Therefore, attributing the more significant T-cell dysfunction and immune suppression solely to BsAb exposure may be overly simplistic. Instead, the cumulative impact of multiple BCMA-targeted therapies and the higher treatment burden likely played a more significant role in these outcomes.

An additional question arises regarding whether differences in FcRH5 expression levels could exist depending on the type or sequence of prior treatments. If prior treatment modalities influence FcRH5 expression, understanding the observed differences in cevostamab efficacy among treatment groups could add another layer of complexity.”

Lucia Masarova:

“Big Congratulations to Julie Braish; Superstar leukemia fellow and Chief fellow at MD Anderson Cancer Center! It has been an absolute pleasure to mentor you!!! Fellow to be Moffit Cancer Center. Abstracts at ASH23, ASH24, ASCO24, MPN Brooklyn. Can’t wait to see what is coming next.”

James Nyamataga:

“It was worth attending my first ASH24 in San Diego. Leaving with new sciences, ideas, collaborations, and networking. I am looking forward to many more ASH meetings.”

Naveen Pemmaraju:

“A serious meeting of the minds with MD Education team!”

Rahul Banerjee:

“One last investigator meeting for our Velcade reduction consortium are always a pleasure to work with my partner in crime.”

Guilherme Perini:

“Wrapping ASH24 and really grateful of how our field is evolving. Happy to see many Latin Americans in trials, oral presentations etc.

We must think globally and guarantee that the fate of a person with blood cancer is not impacted by where they were born.

One of my favorite quotes is:

“To change the world, my friend Sancho, that is not madness, or utopia, rather justice.” – Don Quixote.

Thank you ASH24 and all colleagues promoting Global Oncology/Hematology.

I hope we together can change the world. Count me in.”

Lucia Masarova:

“Thanks ASH for another amazing ASH24 experience!!! Full of friends, connections, science, fruitful discussions (a must coffee), oral and poster presentation.

All in beautiful San Diego.”

Amer Zeidan:

“Leaving ASH24 tired and sleep deprived, with meetings, sessions, talks, activities, etc from 6am to late evenings for 7 days, but still missed on many talks and people I wanted to meet. However, I feel so excited by the data and motivated for an even better ASH25. Safe travels to all.”

ASH:

“The time has now come,
Yet the future shines so bright
See you again soon.”

Further Reading:

Highlights from ASH24 Day 1

Highlights from ASH24 Day 2

Highlights from ASH24 Day 3