Highlights of 2019 ASTCT Meeting by the iNDUS BMT Group at Chennai, India
Updated: Nov 13, 2019
The 2nd Highlight India meeting was held in Chennai on April 5-7, 2019. The conference was organized by the iNDUS BMT Group in partnership with the American Society of Transplantation and Cellular Therapy (ASTCT). The purpose of this meeting was to educate the students about the latest research in the field of hematopoietic cell transplantation and its applicability for the developing country perspective.
The evening of Friday, April 5th focused on trainee education and a range of topics were covered. These included donor and graft selection, conditioning regimens and management of posttransplant complications. Trainee session handouts are available at the iNDUS website to professionals (medical, scientific) who are training / practicing in the field of BMT upon request .
On Saturday, April 6th, the morning sessions included AML/MDS, management of relapse, and infections. After a short break, autoimmune diseases, supportive care and survivorship were covered. This was followed by a working lunch (!) with enthusiastic discussions in small roundtable groups. Afternoon topics included hemoglobinopathies, chronic GVHD, primary immunodeficiency and CAR-T cell therapies. A trainee poster session followed which gave opportunity for interactions amongst students, colleagues and invited faculty.
The meeting resumed on April 7th, with concurrent pediatric focused (ALL, AML, and non-malignant diseases) and adult-focused topics (multiple myeloma and lymphoma). This was followed by talks on acute GVHD and haploidentical transplants. After lunch the conference concluded in the afternoon with a vote of thanks.
A summary of this meeting was recently published in the Indian Journal of Hematology and Blood Transfusion (PMID:31388249).