Research conducted by the hematology department of the 2nd Affiliated Hospital of XJTU on the CART treatment for multiple myeloma stood out at the international academic stage

From June 22nd to 26th, 2017, the 22nd Congress of the European Hematology Association (EHA) was held in Madrid, Spain. Around 10,000 hematologists all over the world gathered and shared their experiences and developments in diagnosis, treatment and risk stratification of hematological diseases during the past year. Five research papers from three Chinese institutions were selected to give a oral presentation at the conference.

Prof. Aili He, director of Hematology Department, reported at the 22nd Congress of the EHA

Our research paper, of which the first author is Prof. Wanggang Zhang, was scheduled for an oral presentation in the first morning of the conference, which was selected from less than 8% of all submissions. At the meeting, Prof. He Aili, director of Hematology Department of the 2nd Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University, on behalf of the research team, gave a presentation entitled “PHASE I, OPEN-LABEL TRIAL OF ANTI-BCMA CHIMERIC ANTIGEN RECEPTOR T CELLS IN PATIENTS WITH RELAPSED/ REFRACTORY MULTIPLE MYELOMA”. Thousands of participants at the conference listened to the report. It attracted great attention and interests of attendees, after which we had received several consulting requests and cooperation intentions.

Prof. Wanggang Zhang and Prof. Aili He at the 22nd Congress of the EHA

Multiple myeloma (MM) is still a incurable malignant disease. In recent years, the incidence of MM has increased year by year. The research team of Hematology Department of the 2nd Affiliated Hospital of Xi’an Jiaotong University has been expending great efforts and stressing on this extremely challenging work, and great achievements have been make in this field. In this research project, a total of 35 patients were enrolled by then, of which 30 patients could be assessed by April 5th. Nineteen patients (63.3%) out of 30 achieved complete remission and MRD negative. Nine patients achieved VGPR (30.0%). It is the best result among currently known studies all over the world. With the extension of the follow-up time in the future, the proportion of patients getting sCR will increase, which could indicate a possible cure for MM.

Prof. Munshi from Harvard University and Prof. JF San miguil from Navarra University of Spain highly appreciated and recognized our work. They both thought that this was a remarkable achievement for MM treatment. Professor JF San miguil also quoted our work in his own conference report. Michael Odwyer, director of the Department of Hematology of the National University of Galway, Ireland, commented that it is very amazing that some patients could keep remission for up to a year without any other agents. Scientists from the UK, Australia and other countries also expressed their expectation of conducting a cooperative research after the conference.

On June 5, 2017, Prof. Wanhong Zhao gave a presentation in the 2017 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting on behalf of our department. The results were reported by the Associated Press, AFP, Reuters and etc., which caused worldwide concern and sensation as well.