Milan, June 13, 2014 – Dr Nicola Gökbuget will explain also on behalf of Max Topp, the results of two abstracts that will be presented during the 19th Congress of EHA about the treatment of ALL.

Milan, June 13, 2014 – New possible treatment options for thalassemia patients will be presented by Dr Olivier Hermine at the 19th Congress of EHA.

Milan, June 13, 2014 – Results from a large international study on pediatric ITP will be presented at the 19th Congress of EHA by Dr John Grainger.

Milan, June 13, 2014 – Dr Alessandro Vannucchi will present the promising results of a Phase III trial for polycythemia vera patients.

Multiple myeloma (MM), a proliferation (growth) of malignant plasma cells in the bone marrow destroying bones, accounts for 10% of all hematologic malignancies. Approximately 45.000 new cases are diagnosed each year together in the US and Europe. MM is mainly a disease of elderly people with age at diagnosis between 65-70 years.

The dramatic improvement in outcome for children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia is one of the major achievements in hematology in the last 40 years. However, while 90% of children with this disease can now be cured, the outlook has not been so good for the less common type of childhood leukemia, acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Although only 1 in 7 children with leukemia have AML, half of these children will die from their disease. The challenge now is to harness the new developments in genomics to improve the outcome for these children.

Blood cancers (leukemias) are life-threatening diseases that can devastate the lives of patients and their families. Great progress has been made in treatments to improve the survival of these otherwise invariably fatal conditions. Major advances in the understanding of leukemia genetics for genome sequencing of individual patients has taken us one step further towards realizing personalized medicine for many patients.

The International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH) partners with thrombosis related organizations from every continent to launch World Thrombosis Day focused on single cause of top 3 cardiovascular deaths worldwide.

EHA endorses and supports the initiative for this World Thromobis Day.

The European Hematology Association is organizing its 19^th Congress in Milan, Italy- June 12-15, 2014.

Following last year’s successful introduction, the EHA congress program will be complemented by a dedicated advocacy track. This track combines all patient and policy related sessions into one comprehensive full-day program on Saturday.

The Board of the European Hematology Association (EHA) has the pleasure to cordially invite you, as a member of the press, to the 19th Congress of EHA.More than 9,500 participants from around the world are expected at the upcoming 19th Congress of the European Hematology Association at the MiCo - Milano Congressi in Milan, Italy from June 12-15, 2014.

Transfusion of erythrocytes is the most common form of cellular therapy. It rapidly restores the oxygen supply to the tissues in patients suffering from sudden blood loss, reduced erythrocyte production following for instance cytotoxic cancer treatment, or in patients suffering from chronic anemia due to congenital diseases such as sickle cell disease and thalassemia. Matching transfusions for ABO and Rh-D blood group antigens is in general sufficient for successful transfusion. However, over 300 additional blood group antigens are known, against which we do not normally generate antibodies, and that are not matched for in general transfusion practice.

Since 2010 the European Hematology Association (EHA) and the Wallace H Coulter Foundation (WHCF) have been in a close partnership, in which EHA was the beneficiary of generous donations for its projects. The support of the WHCF has been the prime mover for the setup of the EHA-ASH Translational Research Training in Hematology (TRTH) program and an important contributor towards the vast expansion of EHA’s outreach program. Both programs have had a major impact on the Association’s array of activities and global network.

The importance of the achievements of Wallace Coulter, the inventor of the Coulter Counter - the most valuable tool in the hematology laboratory, as a person and his organization cannot be underestimated for the hematological community as well as for EHA due to the Foundation’s support. EHA is glad to be able to pay tribute and commemorate the 100th birthday of Wallace Coulter.

This year the Scientific Working Group Session on hematopoietic stem cells will focus on the recent advance in the field of “Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (IPSC)”.

Iron deficiency anaemia continues to me the most common disease in the world, affecting millions of people, mostly women. Failure to find an underlying cause of iron deficiency and failure to respond to iron replacement often points to a completely different mechanism of anaemia which is usually congenital and surprisingly can lead to excess accumulation of iron and ill health.

Breaking news on Lymphoma (lymph node cancer) and Myeloma (plasma cell cancer) reported at meetings of Scientific Working Groups during the European Hematology Congress in Stockholm, June 13-16, 2013