Impressions from Climb for a Cure Mount Kilimanjaro participants

"We have made great progress over the past two decades but we can't sit back and say the job is done when so many CML patients are still not receiving the best drug for them, and so few are achieving treatment-free-remission. With the Climb for a Cure Mount Kilimanjaro 2019 we wanted to do something a bit out of our comfort zone to celebrate 10 years of work by the iCMLf and to mark a new phase ...

"Researchers, patients, patient advocates, physicians and supporters of the Foundation joined us on the Climb for a Cure Mount Kilimanjaro 2019. For me this represents the whole CML community. It's how the community works together and responds together" (Nicola Evans, Chief Executive of the iCMLf)

"I spend my days treating patients with CML and we can treat them sucessfully, but the rest of the world is not like that. We have a bigger obligation to patients in other parts of the world that don't have what we have. I like this focus of the iCMLf" (Kendra Sweet - researcher and hematologist from the US)

"I pledged to do this for me and for all CML patients in Nigeria. CML is not known in Nigeria, the government doesn't know we exist because this is a rare cancer. What I really want to do is to make a change. It might not be possible in a lifetime but at least I will give it a try. It's better than not trying. From there I'll see what happens"(Andy Ojelabi - CML patient from Nigeria)

"The most amazing experience I've ever had, not only about climbing Kilimanjaro, but making this as a group and sharing our experiences" (Katia Pagnano - researcher and hematologist from Brazil)

"The perfect way to meet new friends, discover new places and challenge myself while supporting a noble cause. I would have never dreamed of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. If I can do this, CML researchers can find a cure for CML" (Rihab Nasr - researcher and hematologist from Lebanon)

"Patients do this mountain climbing every day if they have the diagnosis. I wanted to show my small tribute to their daily struggle" (Vamsi Kota - researcher and hematologist from the US)

Climb for a cure 2019 - Ayla, Conny and Yunus Borowczak

"Thanks to effective medication, CML has changed from a fatal to a chronic disease. This is a great achievement and gives CML patients hope. But this is not enough – more can be done!Our children need a healing therapy! This is our highest priority as a family and we want to reach the top and achieve a cure for CML."(Conny Borowczak with her daugher Ayla and her son Yunus - a CML patient)

Professor and Senior House Physician

University of Bordeaux, France

Professor Mahon gratuated in clinical hematology from the faculty of medicine, University of Bordeaux and received a PhD for his work on "Selection of Normal Cells in Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia". Professor Mahon has completed a Research Fellowship at the Imperial College in London (UK) and is a felllow of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), the European Hematology Association (EHA), the French Society of Hematology, and the European Investigators on CML Group (El-CML). He currently serves as the President of the French Group of CML (Fl-LMC) and today has authored or co-authored for than 160 articles in peer-reviewed journals.

Professor of Medicine Chair, Department of Haematology Hammersmith Hospital
Imperial College, London (UK)

Professor Jane Apperley is the Chair of the Department of Haematology at the Imperial College and the Chief of Service for Clinical Haematology at the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in London, England. Jane Apperley served as the President of both the European Group of Blood and Marrow Transplantation and the British Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation. She also serves on the Advisory Board of the Centre for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research.

She qualified in Medicine from the University of Birmingham and after initial specialization in internal medicine she completed specialist training in hematology in Birmingham, London, Cambridge and Boston.

Her particular interests are the biology and management of CML, which has led to an extensive experience in stem cell transplantation and to the use of signal transduction inhibitors. Her group at the Hammersmith Hospital site has extensive experience in the use of the first- and second-generation TKI’s, particularly in the areas of molecular monitoring and mechanisms of drug resistance. She has a long-standing interest in the ways in which hematologic diseases and their treatment impact fertility, pregnancy, and fetal outcome.

Leader, Myeloproliferative Neoplasms (MPN) Program

Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, New York

Professor Michael Mauro directs the Myeloproliferative Neoplasms (MPN) Program at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. He received his medical degree from Dartmouth Medical School and completed his residency and fellowship training at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. For more than a decade he worked with Dr Brian Druker at the OHSU Knight Cancer Institute in Portland, Oregon with a focus on research in CML. There he directed the CML clinical trial program and was involved in the early development and sentinel clinical study of targeted therapy for CML. His clinical focus is in CML with interest in therapy optimization, novel therapies, treatment free remission and pregnancy/fertility, as well as other myeloproliferative neoplasms, including myelofibrosis, polycythemia and thrombocytosis and less common conditions such as eosinophillic and mast cell disorders.

Jeff Lipton, PhD MD FRCPC

Jeff Lipton is Professor of Medicine at the University of Toronto and Staff Physician on the Leukemia and Allogeneic Blood and Marrow Transplant Services at the Princess Margaret Hospital. He received and honors BSc in Biochemistry at the University of Calgary and went on to a PhD in Biochemistry at the University of Western Ontario. An MRC post-doctoral fellowship at the Weizmann Institute in Israel with Leo Sachs led to his developing interests in leukemia. After a short time as a junior staff at the University of Connecticut, he had a mid-life crisis and went back to Calgary to go to medical school, followed by a residency in Internal Medicine. He then completed sub-specialty training in Medical Oncology at the University of Toronto and stayed on at the PMH as a staff physician. His clinical practice is in chronic leukemias and bone marrow failure syndromes as well as allogeneic stem cell transplant. Research interests in particular are in CML and its therapy, outcomes and supportive care in BMT, and in the therapy of bone marrow failure syndromes. Jeff serves on the Unrelated Donor Transplant Advisory Board of OneMatch, Past President of the Canadian Bone Marrow Transplant Group (CBMTG), was an advisor to the Center for Research on Bone Marrow Transplantation (CIBMTR), has served on the Clinical Trials Group of the CBMTG, was Director of the Allogeneic Stem Cell Transplant Program at PMH, is Head of the CML Study Group at PMH and is on several international advisory boards relating to the therapy of CML including the International CML Foundations and the ELN and Canadian CML Guidelines Committee. He has authored or co-authored more than 250 peer reviewed papers and 350 abstracts.

Nick Cross, MA PhD FRCPath

Nick Cross MA PhD FRCPath studies at the University of Cambridge, initially reading Natural
Sciences and subsequently undertaking a PhD in the Department of Genetics. He started his postdoctoral career at the Hammersmith Hospital, London in 1987, where he developed an interest in chronic myeloid leukaemia under the mentorship of Prof John Goldman. In 2001 he relocated to Salisbury to take up Directorship of the Wessex Regional Genetics Laboratory and Chair of Human Genetics at the University of Southampton. His research, which has resulted in more than 290 peer reviewed publications, focuses on the molecular pathogenesis of myeloid malignancies as well as the development, validation and standardisation of genetic tests.

Ricardo Pasquini

Universidade Federal do Paraná
Curitiba, Brazil

Ricardo Pasquini is an Emeritus Professor of Internal Medicine, Hematology and Oncology and former Head of the Division of Hematology and Medical Oncology at Hospital de Clínicas of Federal University of Paraná in Curitiba, Brazil and also Head of Bone Marrow Transplant Center at the same Institution for almost 30 years.

He pioneered hematopoietic stem cell transplant in Latin America, doing the first transplant in 1979 and more than 1800 procedures, mainly allogeneic, were performed. The major experience in stem cell transplant concentrated in CML and acquired and constitutional Aplastic Anemias patients. Following the advent of TKIs inhibitors (year 2000), he organized and coordinated a CML outpatient clinic where approximately 400 patients have been registered and some enrolled in several protocols. Also, a laboratory for BCR/ABL quantification and mutation detection was settled that receive samples from several Brazilian Centers.

He has been interested in treatment optimization of chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML) and has been involved in the management of the randomized CML Studies I-IV of the German CML Study Group for more than 19 years. His special interests are the molecular monitoring of minimal residual disease and mechanisms of resistance in CML, and targeted therapy in a variety of neoplastic disorders.

Dr. Pasquini is investigator for the nilotinib, dasatinib and bosutinib phase II and phase III studies, has been participating in imatinib phase II and III studies and is a member of World CML Advisory Committee.

He is a member of the American Society of Hematology (member of the International members Committee for nine years), the European Hematology Association, the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the International Society of Experimental Hematology, the American Society of Blood and Marrow transplant and for many years member of the Executive and Advisory Committee o IBMTR/CIBMTR. He is a member of the Brazilian Hematology Association and founder member of the Brazilian Bone Marrow Transplant Society. He has published over 100 peer-reviewed papers and is regularly invited to speak at national and international symposia.

Charles A. Schiffer, MD, is Professor of Medicine and Oncology at Wayne State University School of Medicine and the Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, Michigan. He is the director of the Leukemia/Lymphoma Multidisciplinary Program.

Dr. Schiffer earned his BA cum laude at Brandeis University and his M.D. at New York University School of Medicine. He completed his internship, residency, and chief residency in Internal Medicine at Bellevue Hospital under the auspices of New York University School of Medicine and had subsequent training and positions at the Baltimore Cancer Research Institute, National Cancer Institute and the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where he served as Chief of the Division of Hematology. He has also served as Chief of the Division of Hematology/Oncology and Director of Clinical Research at the Karmanos Cancer Institute.

Dr. Schiffer has authored and co-authored more than 300 articles and 80 book chapters on topics concerning the treatment of leukemia in adults, platelet transfusion, and granulocyte transfusion therapy, among others. He has served on the Editorial Boards for Blood, the Journal of Clinical Oncology, International Journal of Hematology, Transfusion Medicine Reviews and Transfusion, and reviews articles for multiple journals. Committee memberships have included Chairman of the Leukemia Committee of the Cancer and Leukemia Group B, Chairman of the Food and Drug Administration Oncologic Drug Advisory Committee, and grant reviews for the NCI and Leukemia/Lymphoma Society of America. Dr. Schiffer has been named among American Health Magazine’s and Castle Connelly’s “Best Doctors in America,” “Best Cancer Specialists in the US.” In 2006, he received the Dr. John J. Kenney Award from the Leukemia/Lymphoma Society of America and the Celgene Award for Career Achievement in Hematology. He has received multiple teaching awards from Wayne State University and was recently inducted into the Academy of Scholars, the highest recognition accorded to academic faculty at the University.

Prof. Dr. Jiri Mayer

Prof. Dr. Jiri Mayer (jmayer@fnbrno.cz), is Deputy Head of the Dept. of Internal Medicine, Hematology and Oncology, University Hospital Brno, Brno, Czech Republic, and now also the Dean of the Medical Faculty, Masaryk University Brno, Czech Republic.

He graduated in 1985 at Brno. After training in general internal medicine during 1985-1990, he started to work at the specialized hematology dept., where he has been working up to now. His certified qualifications are internal medicine, hematology, and oncology. Since 2001, he has been a Professor at the Medical School, Masaryk´s University, Brno, Czech Republic. His scientific experience comprises:

Internal medicine, intensive care medicine
Hemorheology
Supportive care in hematology/oncology, especially diagnostics and treatment of infection in immunocompromissed patients
Autologous and allogeneic bone marrow transplantation
Peripheral blood stem cell transplantation
Adult stem cell therapy
Diagnostic and therapy of lymphomas and leukemias (especially CML)

In 1990, he visited Cancer Research Institute in Berlin, Germany, and in 1996, Royal Marsden Hospital, Leukaemia/Myeloma Unit, London, UK.

He is a member of European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation, American Society of Hematology, International Society for Experimental Hematology, European Haematology Association, and American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation.

He is also founding member and now chairman of the CzEch Leukemia Study Group for Life, CELL (http://leukemia-cell.org).

He has been the principal investigator of many trials since 1995, in the fields of lymphomas and leukemias. He has published more than 300 papers, abstracts, and lectures.

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