Women in Lymphoma Newsletter - Issue 9 - May 2024

Edited by Dr. Laurie Sehn (Canada) & Dr. Sonali Smith (USA)

Founded in 2019, Women in Lymphoma is a global collaborative alliance of over 1,200 professionals in almost 70 countries engaged in lymphoma treatment, research and education.  WiL members have a breadth of research skills and capacity across basic and translational research, clinical trials, implementation science and patient-clinician research collaborations.

Women in Lymphoma is committed to support and advocate for greater leadership of women in lymphoma; to inspire and empower women in lymphoma; identify and track the metrics of such engagement, and be a voice to challenge and change inequity in lymphoma leadership around the world.

Founding members of WiL include past and current presidents of ASH/ASCO, Chair-Elect of the SAB Lymphoma Research Foundation (US), Chief Medical Officer of LYSA, the leading French lymphoma Study Association; lymphoma leads of the ALLG (Australia), Dutch HOVON group, British Society of Haematology, Founding Chair of Australasian Lymphoma Alliance (ALA) and haematologists from leading cancer centres around the world.

Women in Lymphoma creates and builds initiatives including the WiLing Wednesdays educational webinars; the Change Champions Committee - comprising seven leading male lymphoma specialists with WiL Steering Committee members; global cooperative surveys in gender metrics; annual awards for outstanding Women in Lymphoma; an active social media presence; regular newsletter and representation at leading lymphoma conferences.

Women in Lymphoma acknowledges the enabling support of Lymphoma Australia www.lymphoma.org.au

Women in Lymphoma Steering Committee 2024
• 2024 Co-Chairs - Florence Broussais (France) & Carla Casulo (USA) • Immediate Past Chair - Ann LaCasce (USA) • Secretary - Paola Ghione (USA) • Kate Cwynarski (UK) • Eliza Hawkes (Australia) • Kim Linton (UK) • Carolina Mahuad (Argentina) • •Wendy Osborne (UK) • Astrid Pavlovsky (Argentina) • Michelle Poon (Singapore) • • Clémentine Sarkozy (France) • Laurie Sehn (Canada) • Sonali Smith (USA) •      • Anna Sureda (Spain) • Judith Trotman (Australia) •

Lymphoma Research Foundation (LRF)                            2024 Follicular Lymphoma Scientific Workshop

Reviewed by Dr. Sonali Smith (USA)

The Lymphoma Research Foundation (LRF) is the largest lymphoma-specific organization in the world and is dedicated to eradicate the disease. As part of its mission, the Lymphoma Research Foundation convenes workshops to discuss key lymphoma-related topics. The end result of these workshops might include a white paper, a new grant request for proposals, or a meeting with regulatory bodies to advance a lymphoma agenda.

On April 17^th-18^th, 2024, the Lymphoma Research Foundation hosted a two-day International Follicular Lymphoma Scientific Workshop supported by the Jaime Peykoff Follicular Lymphoma Initiative. Many Women in Lymphoma (WiL) were included in the presentations and panels, led by Dr. Ann LaCasce who is the current Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Lymphoma Research Foundation. Dr. LaCasce planned the meeting with a steering committee that includes WiL members Loretta Nastoupil, Laurie Sehn, Sonali Smith, and Laura Pasqualucci.

The meeting opened with remarks by Dr. LaCasce who set the stage for the meeting. The first session focused on current therapies in the frontline setting, and included provocative presentations by Dr. Laurie Sehn and Dr. Philippe Armand. While chemoimmunotherapy remains the most commonly utilized approach, there are questions on patient selection, timing of treatment initiation, response assessment, and quality of life for patients both during and after therapy. There was vigorous discussion on the historical “GELF” criteria, and whether or not it is time to reconsider the indications for treatment initiation. The second session focused on sequencing, and featured Drs. Carla Casulo and Gilles Salles. Dr. Casulo’s presentation reviewed the historical background leading to the identification of early progression within 24 months of initial chemoimmunotherapy (POD24) and what we have learned since its description now a decade ago. There seemed to be good consensus that POD24 is an adverse prognostic marker, but is it a true subgroup of patients? POD24 confers differing significance based on baseline patient characteristics and the details of the initial therapy; for example, patients with low tumor burden and rituximab monotherapy as initial treatment may not have as poor an outcome if there is POD24. It was an excellent discussion, and highlights that we remain far from precision approaches in follicular lymphoma. The last session on Day 1 focused on clinical trial endpoints and the integration of technologies such as ctDNA and functional imaging. Dr. Sonali Smith was the moderator for this session. Although there were no firm conclusions at the end of the session, it is clear that the expected excellent survival of most patients makes clinical trial design very challenging, and there is a strong need for surrogate markers that can shorten the timeline for therapeutic drug development.

On Day 2, the meeting started with a fascinating session on follicular lymphoma biology and the tumor microenvironment, moderated by WiL Dr. Laura Pasqualucci. Two of the four speakers were women: Dr. Wendy Beguelin (Weill Cornell Medicine) and Dr. Andrea Radtke (NIH Lympocyte Biology Branch). The biology of follicular lymphoma remains complex, and the steps leading from B-cells harboring the t(14;18) rearrangement in the general population to overt malignancy are yet to be fully understood. However, early epigenetic changes and tumor microenvironmental factors are likely very important. There was robust discussion on whether or not to pursue eradication of the follicular lymphoma “stem cell”. Despite the elegant biology shared in this session, the next session focused on new treatments reflects that we remain without precision approaches for the vast majority of patients. This session was moderated by Dr. Ann LaCasce and featured Drs. Loretta Nastoupil and Brian Link. Dr. Nastoupil gave an outstanding talk on current and emerging therapies, including bispecific agents and cellular therapy products. A point of discussion and debate during the Q&A centered on identifying patients most likely to benefit from specific approaches.  A recurring theme of the meeting was whether or not “cure” is possible, or if it is even needed in all patients. With this in mind, the final session was a panel discussion on curability for follicular lymphoma, and included Dr. Sonali Smith. The main questions posed included 1) how will we know when we have achieved a cure? 2) what surrogate measures of MRD should be applied to predict curability?; 3) do we have the tools today to achieve cure? If not, what additional tools and targets should be prioritized? 4) what samples are needed to facilitate proof of curability? There were other points of discussion, but this is clearly a hot topic and will shape the development, sequencing, and utilization of all available modalities and treatments.

21st International Ultmann Chicago Lymphoma Symposium 

April 19-20, 2024

The 21st International Ultmann Chicago Lymphoma Symposium (IUCLS) is a continuation of an annual conference dedicated solely to the science and clinical care of lymphoma. It has been organized to honor the achievements of Dr. John Ultmann, a pioneer in the treatment of lymphoma, who devoted his life to the understanding of this disease. He was particularly known for his work on the staging of Hodgkin lymphoma and the utility of staging as a guide for treatment.

Two of the conference organizers were WiL - Dr. Sonali Smith and Dr. Neha Mehta-Shah - and nearly 50% of the speakers were women including several rising WiL www.bioascend.com/Chicago-lymphoma-symposium 

There was also a WiL reunion of sorts at the 8th Annual MSK Symposium on Lymphoma with Dr. Laurie Sehn delivering the Keynote Address on advances in diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. The meeting was fantastic, and capped off by a wonderful WiL dinner and a chance to see Dr. Lia Palomba on her scooter. So beautiful and so NYC!! 

LEFT - WiL enjoying a meal in NYC at the MSK Symposium on Lymphoma (L to R) Neha Mehta-Shah, Julie Vose, Laurie Sehn, Lia Palomba, Kate Cwynarski, Sonali Smith & Ann LaCasce.
RIGHT - Dr Lia Palomba with her "very NYC" mode of transport!

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WiLing Wednesdays   free educational webinars

Coming up next in May/June 2024 is Series 12 of WiLing Wednesdays with a focus on Hodgkin Lymphoma. Details of the four weekly themes are above and registration is via email link from wil@lymphoma.org. au or via WiL's Twitter/X page https://twitter.com/WomenInLymphoma 

🔗Previous webinars can be viewed here   https://womeninlymphoma.org/events-%26-news

Series 11 in March/April 2024 focused on DLBCL and was Co-Chaired by Mariana Bastos-Oreiro (Spain), and Laurie Sehn (Canada). This series of five sessions featured 15 female global leaders in lymphoma - Nancy Bartlett (USA), Mariana Bastos-Oreiro (Spain), Leyre Bento de Miguel (Spain), Marie-Hélène Delfau-Larue (France), Eliza Hawkes (Australia), Laura Hilton (Canada), Gloria Iacoboni (Spain), Nathalie Johnson (Canada), Loretta Nastoupil (USA), Astrid Pavlovsky (Argentina), Laurie Sehn (Canada), Margaret Shipp (USA), Sonali Smith (USA),  Anna Sureda (Spain) and Catherine Thieblemont (France).

In Series 11 (DLBCL) there was a record total of 586 registrations,  48 countries represented, 141 new WiL members and 103 male registrants (17.5%)

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🌟Are you an "Emerging WiL" within ten (10) years of your training? 🌟
Please read on! 

 ⚕️News from WiL around the world 🌏​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

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May 13, 2024 - The BIDIFLY project, coordinated by Dr Clémentine Sarkozy - Paris-based hematologist at the Institut Curie and researcher at LITO, supported by LYSA-LYSARC and the Institute for Follicular Lymphoma Innovation (IFLI) - has just been selected by the MESSIDORE call for projects from INSERM. The BIDIFLY project has been awarded €1.4m - raising the total budget of the project to €9m - to better understand follicular lymphoma and develop the prognostic and therapeutic tools of tomorrow.

Discovery Science highlights from the 17th International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma (ICML) Lugano, June 2023 Gabriela Forestieri, Joyce Marques de Almeida, Sara Napoli, Deborah Piffaretti, Chiara Tarantelli, Fangwen Zhang, Afua Adjeiwaa Mensah
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/hon.3275

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The European Hematology Association (EHA) Hybrid Congress Madrid, Spain - June 13 to 16, 2024  www.ehaweb.org/congress/eha2024-hybrid-congress/eha2024-hybrid-congress/

American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Chicago, USA - May 31 to June 4, 2024  www.conferences.asco.org 

International Conference on Hematology and Blood Disorders - Paris, France - September 19-20, 2024

Lymphoma, Leukemia and Myeloma Congress  New York, USA - 16 to 19 October, 2024

American Society of Hematology (ASH) Annual meeting and Exposition - San Diego, USA - December 7 to 10, 2024  www.hematology.org 

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Please share your news with the global WiL community.

Send your contributions to wil@lymphoma.org.au