The 2018 European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) Annual Meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, proved to be an exciting congress with >5,000 delegates in attendance – the highest attendance to date. Here, Tony Pagliuca, MBBS, MA, FRCP, FRCPath, from Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK, highlights the importance of bringing together healthcare professionals with patients during meetings such as EBMT. Prof. Pagliuca outlines his meeting highlights, including transplantation in myelodysplastic syndrome and while utilizing CAR T-cell therapy. Several sessions focused on CAR T-cell therapy for a range of malignancies, including the presentation of data from the CALM first-in-human trial (NCT02746952) in adult patients with relapsed B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia, showing improved outcomes in patients previously unresponsive to treatment.
