Overview
If you would like to view the recorded symposium, please contact Amy Swanson at amy.swanson@nih.gov.
The purpose of the 2nd NCI MDS symposium is to bring together and inform the academic and hematology-oncology community of the current clinical research and clinical protocols available at the NIH Intramural Research Program.
MDS remains a challenging clinical problem as a recalcitrant cancer of the bone marrow. Despite recent advances in therapy and understanding of the disease, hematopoietic stem cell transplantation remains the only curative treatment for MDS. In 2020, the Center for Cancer Research within the intramural NCI has established a Myeloid Malignancies Clinical Program with the primary goals of organizing and focusing the existing NIH intramural research potential, leading to a deeper understanding of the disease biology that underlies clinical MDS, paving the way for rapid development of improved therapies.
NCI CCR Myeloid Malignancies Program (MMP) is a trans-NIH initiative encompassing more than 20 principal investigators focusing on basic, translational, clinical, and epidemiological research in myeloid malignancies with a specific focus on MDS. The MMP has four thematic areas of focus: 1) pre-clinical models to study MDS biology and therapy; 2) post-transcriptional regulation in MDS/AML; 3) germline predispositions to myeloid malignancy and 4) the role of the immune system in control of MDS/AML. Readily available bone marrow sampling in these patients represents an ideal model for longitudinal study, including the natural history of cancer progression from initial genetic defects to a full-blown clinical malignancy. The goal is to join forces with the extramural academic and clinical community and more rapidly advance our understanding, treatment and prevention of MDS/AML, in both adults and children.
Virtual meeting program
This year we have planned a succinct but informative virtual meeting with the primary goal to inform the broader medical community of the progress since our 2019 NCI MDS Symposium, and the currently open or soon to be open clinical protocols at the intramural NIH and the NIH Clinical Center.
The symposium will include speakers and collaborators from the NIH intramural research programs. The target audience includes clinicians in academia and private practices, serving both adult and pediatric patient populations.
Overall Goal
The overall goal of this symposium is to provide information on MDS clinical trials currently available or planned at the NCI and NIH. Our aim is to continue to build a strong patient referral network and collaborations engaging extramural community oncologists and academia oncologists/hematologists leading to future cures and novel treatments for MDS/AML.
Organizing Committee
Steven Pavletic, M.D., M.S., Clinical Director, NCI MMP, Head, Graft-versus-Host and Late Effects Section, Immune Deficiency and Cell Therapy Program, CCR, NCI
Dan Larson, Ph.D., Co-chair, NCI MMP, Head, Systems Biology of Gene Expression, CCR, NCI
Christopher Hourigan, M.D., D.Phil., Co-chair, NCI MMP, Myeloid Malignancies Section, NHLBI, NIH
Peter Aplan M.D., Head, Leukemia Biology Section, CCR, NCI
Nirali Shah M.D., M.H.Sc., Head, Hematologic Malignancies Section, POB, CCR, NCI
Lea Cunningham M.D., Medical Director, RUNX1 Program, NHGRI, Director, NIH Pediatric Bone Marrow Transplantation Fellowship Program, CCR, NCI
Kathy McGraw, Ph.D., Staff Scientist, Laboratory of Receptor Biology and Gene Expression, CCR, NCI
Katherine Calvo, M.D., Ph.D., Director of Automated Hematology and Chimerism Testing, CC, NIH
In collaboration with the
NIH Myeloid Malignancy Special Interest Group
Aplastic Anemia & MDS International Foundation
NCI Myeloid Malignancy Program