Top Experts to Discuss Growing Concern Over Bone Marrow Disorder
Sunday December 5, 4:29 pm ET
>>suddenly there are a lot of different players in this space that used to be relatively empty>>
As if ordered:
SAN DIEGO, Dec. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- A press conference on a growing and life-threatening bone marrow disorder will be held today during 46th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH). Presided over by a panel of leading experts in the field, the event will be an in-depth and interactive discussion of this emerging issue.
By current estimates, 15,000 people in the United States and 87,000 worldwide are diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) each year, and many specialists agree that the overall incidence is increasing.
Compounding this is what many believe to be an unmet need to educate physicians about MDS, its diagnosis and ongoing research and treatment. According to one of the event's panelists, Steven Gore, M.D., Associate Professor of Oncology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, "Patients with MDS have been an underserved community. The disorder is under- diagnosed, under-researched, and under-treated, and is definitely an area which is in need of more attention."
A bone marrow disorder characterized by the production of too few functional blood cells, MDS typically affects adults over the age of 60. Bleeding and infection are the causes of death for a majority of these patients, and the survival time, depending on the severity of their disorder, is typically only about six months to six years.
Says panelist Elihu Estey, M.D., Chief of the Acute Leukemias and Myelodysplastic Syndrome Section of the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, "Many think that an obstacle to further progress in MDS is a relative lack of funding. For example, the money devoted by the U.S. government to MDS research is considerably less than that devoted to other hematologic diseases, which either affect fewer people or have a better prognosis than MDS."
The press conference will touch on ASH's advocacy efforts to improve this situation, by working with leaders at the National Institutes of Health. ASH's efforts led to the NIH's publication of Requests for Applications (a means of designating research funding) for MDS this past May. As a result, a commitment of approximately $3 million was made by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute to fund MDS research in 2005.
The conference will also offer an exclusive update on new ways to counter MDS. According to discussion leader Alan List, M.D., Professor of Oncology and Medicine at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center, "We are currently experiencing an emergence of novel therapies that may offer significant benefit for one of the most common group of bone marrow disorders. There is finally hope on the horizon for MDS patients with the approval of the first drug for treatment of these syndromes and the energized research pipeline of new treatments that are rapidly approaching the market."
The event, "Press Prep Series on Emerging Issues in Hematology: Expert Perspectives on MDS," will take place from 9 a.m. - 10 a.m. PST at the San Diego Convention Center. Journalists who attend the session are invited to take part in a question and answer session with the panelists. Additional panelists include Peter Emanuel, M.D., Acting Director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Stephanie Lee, M.D., M.P.H., Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
The American Society of Hematology (http://www.hematology.org) is the world's largest professional society concerned with the causes and treatment of blood disorders. Its mission is to further the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disorders affecting blood, bone marrow, and the immunologic, hemostatic, and vascular systems, by promoting research, clinical care, education, training, and advocacy in hematology.
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