The emerging field of personalised medicine is offering innovative ways of tackling Europe's health issues. But Europe's healthcare system is not yet fully adapted to take advantage of the possibilities.How can patients get access to the benefits that are on the brink of becoming available through personalised medicine?

This is the theme of a conference organised by EAPM under the Irish Presidency of the EU, in Dublin on March 20-21.

The first ever EHA-SWG Scientific Meeting, titled Focus on Neutropenia & other genetic marrow failure failures took place in Genova, Italy, from September 14-16, 2012.
The meeting was chaired by Carlo Dufour, MD from the Heamtology Unit from G. Gaslini Children’s Hospital, Genova, Italy

60 participants attended the meeting from Europe, Middle-East, Africa and United States. Attendance included faculty members, trained and in training doctors involved in the field of neutropenia, marrow failure and pediatric hematology in general. 

At the 54^th Annual Meeting of ASH, Dr Francesco Lo Coco, lead author and Chairman of the APL subcommittee of the Italian GIMEMA group and Professor of Hematology at University Tor Vergata in Rome, Italy, presented the outcome of new research that demonstrates the efficacy of the first curative treatment for acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) that does not include chemotherapy, marking an important step toward front-line use of targeted therapies for acute leukemia.

Brussels, 20 Nov: Economic growth and lower healthcare costs are both possible if Europe exploits the opportunities of personalised healthcare, according to a report prepared under the aegis of the Cyprus Presidency of the EU.

We welcome the proposal for a Clinical Trials Regulation released by the European Commission. The Regulation appears to improve the legislation associated with running clinical trials. This will give clinicians and researchers a better framework for developing and testing treatments, to benefit patients across Europe, while maintaining the high standards of patient safety that currently exist in European clinical research. The harmonisation of clinical trials legislation and the streamlining of the application process for starting trials should particularly benefit the set up and running of multi-national trials in Europe.

H-Net, the 3-year European Network for Harmonization of Training in Hematology project led by Professor Eva Hellström-Lindberg, ended in September 2011, but its strongest components continue.

  http://www. no-cuts-on-research. eu EHA supports European Nobel and Fields Medal prizewinners to prevent the EU research funding for 2014-2020 from being subject to budget cuts.

The Leukemia Patient Advocates Foundation, the legal host of the CML Advocates Network, proudly announced the launch of phase 2 of its International CML Adherence Survey. The survey was launched in 12 countries on International CML Awareness Day (22 Sept 2012). As it is organized by the non-profit patient community, this research work urgently needs your support now: If you are a CML patient treated with TKI, please participate. If you are a doctor treating CML patients: Please encourage your patients to participate!

BRUSSELS, September 18 2012:

Today, Nessa Childers, MEP hosted the launch of the Manifesto of the European Alliance for Personalised Medicine in the European Parliament. 

The Manifesto sets out both the opportunities and challenges of ‘a targeted approach to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease based on an individual’s specific profile’ - what is known as personalised medicine.

Currently available treatments for disease have revolutionised health in Europe and beyond, but science has now brought healthcare to the brink of another major evolution.

By a combination of molecular medicine and computer technology, it is becoming possible for screening of patients, early treatment, or prevention to be calibrated precisely, to deliver with maximum effectiveness. With personalised medicine, healthcare services will ensure the right intervention to the right patient at the right time - improving patient outcomes, reducing the likelihood of adverse events, and cutting down unnecessary treatments.

In an effort to mitigate shortages of hematologic drugs in Europe, EHA is collecting and compiling reports of shortages.

THE HAGUE – July 18, 2012 – Replacing the current Clinical Trials Directive, the European Commission (EC) adopted a proposal yesterday to regulate medical research in Europe.
It appears that the Commission has taken to heart many of the criticisms voiced by EHA and other stakeholders and is now proposing to reduce red tape through the introduction of a regulation, rather than a directive. This should simplify the application for market authorization of medicines and ensure procedural coherence of the assessment.

AMSTERDAM – June 16, 2012 –The European Hematology Association (EHA), the American Society of Hematology (ASH), and the European Cancer Patient Coalition (ECPC) joined today in issuing a common call to action in an effort to mitigate shortages of hematologic drugs in Europe, the United States and around the world. The collective made the announcement today following the EHA-ASH Joint Symposium at the 17th EHA Congress in Amsterdam which was dedicated to the drug shortage crisis.

Laurent Degos will be the fifth recipient of the Jean Bernard Lifetime Achievement Award which was presented for the first time at the 13th Congress in Copenhagen. This award was established to honor outstanding physicians and scientists for their lifetime contribution to the advancement of hematology.

The EHA Board has selected Professor Jesús San Miguel for the José Carreras Lecture at the 17th Congress in Amsterdam. Jesús San Miguel is Professor of Medicine (Haematology), Head of the Hematology Department at the University Hospital of Salamanca, and Director of the Biomedical Research Institute of Salamanca, Spain. He is an internationally recognized leader in the field of hematology, and specifically in the area of multiple myeloma.

Amsterdam, June 15, 2012. “There is a large potential opportunity for saving lives by early identification of cardiac iron loading in Thalassemia patients”, declares Professor John-Paul Carpenter of the Royal Brompton CMR Unit in London at the 17th Congress of the European Hematology Association in Amsterdam.