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.

iCMLf: The first 6 months

The International Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Foundation (iCMLf) is now 6 months old and it has certainly been a productive 6 months. The aim of the iCMLf is to address the challenges faced by the international CML community, be they patients, carers, clinicians, nurses or scientists. This will be through specific programs, unrestricted grants, clinical trials, education and influence. In this capacity the Foundation was proud to launch the first Emerging Regions Support and Partnership (ERSAP) project, the ERSAP Preceptorship Program, a unique opportunity for clinicians from developing countries to undertake an intensive educational program to develop and expand their CML management skills. 28 candidates from developing countries are now enrolled and ready to begin this program.

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.

Chronic Myeloid Leukemia: Reversing the Chronic Phase

john_goldman Despite considerable scepticism about any possible clinical value of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) in the early 1990s, imatinib at an oral dose of 400mg daily has now become standard initial treatment for all CML patients who present in Chronic Phase (CP). After 8 years follow up, the estimated survival for patients treated with imatinib is 85%, which is substantially better than patients treated with interferon alone or interferon plus cytarabine. The adverse effects of imatinib are definitely manageable in most instances.