Moffitt investigators to participate with 16 oral and 50 posters presentations at 53rd ASH meeting

Leukemia, myelodysplastic syndromes, lymphoma and myeloma research in sharp focus

When the American Society of Hematology convenes its 53rd Annual Meeting and Exposition on Dec. 10-13 in San Diego, Calif., researchers from Moffitt Cancer Center will break a new record for Moffitt participants with one plenary presentation, 16 oral presentations and more than 50 poster presentations on new research results in a variety of meeting programs that focus on blood cancer basic science and clinical applications, including bone marrow transplantation and clinical trials results.

ASH, with more than 14,000 international members, is the world's largest professional society concerned with the causes and treatments of disorders affecting the blood; bone marrow; and the immunologic, hemostatic and vascular systems. The society seeks to further blood disease understandings, diagnoses, treatments and prevention by promoting research, clinical care, education, advocacy and training in hematology.

Claudio Anasetti, M.D., chair of Moffitt's Department of Blood & Marrow Transplant, will give a Plenary Session Presentation at 2:05 p.m. Sunday reporting on the results of a phase III study on Graft-Versus-Host Disease that compared the transplantation of blood stem cells and bone marrow transplants from unrelated donors.

Other Moffitt investigators will participate with 16 oral and more than 50 posters presentations on topics including stem cell transplantation and novel clinical trials for Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS), leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. In addition, several Moffitt faculty members will participate as speakers or will chair educational or scientific symposiums during the ASH meeting.

• Ghada M. Kunter, M.D., will report on therapeutic conditioning prior to stem cell transplantation in adults with acute lymphoblastic leukemia in first remission.
• Joseph Pidala, M.D., will discuss allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation for preventing grade II-IV Graft-Versus-Host Disease.
• Rajiv Agarwal, M.D., and Frederick Locke, M.D., will present data from a phase II study examining therapeutic conditioning prior to hematopoietic cell transplantation for acute leukemias and MDS.

• P.K. Burnette, Pharm.D., Ph.D., will discuss human telomerase reverse transcription deficiency in MDS.
• Michal Jaglal, M.D., and Rami S. Komrokji, M.D., will present data on the efficacy of chemotherapy drugs for secondary acute myeloid leukemia following Azanucleosides failure.
• Komrokji will report on a study examining the inhibitor ARRY-614 in patients with MDS and also on a phase II study on a novel inhibitor for treating thrombocythemia myelofibrosis.
• Mikkael Sekeres, M.D., and Komrokji will review the final results from a phase II continuation study on lenalidomide and azacitidine in combination for patients with higher risk MDS.
• Sheng Wei, M.D., Ph.D., will report on a study examining the role of myeloid-derived suppressor cells in the pathogenesis of MDS.

Lymphoma and myeloma researchers

• Beata Holkova, M.D., and Lubomir Sokol, M.D., Ph.D., will discuss a phase II clinical trial for mantle cell lymphoma and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma.
• Fengdong Cheng, M.D., and Eduardo Sotomayor, M.D., will present on the role of Histone deacetylase 6 and STAT3 in IL-10 gene expression and immune tolerance mediated by antigen-presenting cells.
• Hong Wei Wang, M.D., and Sotomayor will share data on Tubastatin A, a selective HDAC6 inhibitor that enhances antigen-presenting cell function and restores the responsiveness of tolerant CD4+ T cells.
• Bertrand Coiffier, M.D., and Sokol will present an analysis of a phase II study of romidepsin for patients with relapsed or refractory common peripheral T-cell lymphoma subtypes.
• Burnette will discuss mediation by pro-fibrotic mesenchymal stem cells in the bone marrow niche for cytopenias in large cell granular lymphocytic leukemia.
• Karrune Woan, B.S., and Sotomayor will report on the role of histone deacetylase 11 (HDAC11) as a regulatory checkpoint of T-cell function.
• Benjamin Djulbegovic, M.D., Ph.D., will discuss the impact of the National Cancer Institute's "Common Toxicity Criteria and Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events on Quality of Treatment-Related Harms Reporting."