Women in Lymphoma Newsletter - Issue 10 - July 2024

Edited by Dr. Anna Sureda (Spain) & Prof. Judith Trotman (Australia)

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) •

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

Celebrating 5 years of Women in Lymphoma (WiL)

A journey towards equality, diversity and inclusion in lymphoma.

Women in Lymphoma (WiL) www.womeninlymphoma.org  - which began as a small group of passionate female lymphoma researchers in 2019  - has grown into an international alliance of approximately 1,200 lymphoma clinicians, researchers and educators in over 70 countries. Women in Lymphoma's mission is to support female lymphoma clinicians, researchers and educators worldwide and to advocate for their leadership and representation in all aspects of the field.

WiL was founded in 2019 by a group of international female lymphoma leaders, with the catalyst being an advertised "manel" at the International Conference on Malignant Lymphoma (ICML) 2019 biennial congress. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) parameters are now highly relevant in culture, society and medicine. In haematology and oncology, recent advances include the first female presidents of major international organisations. However, in our own field of lymphoma, despite decades of gender parity in medical training, women are under-represented in leadership roles due to persistent systemic failures and inherent, often unconscious, biases. The formation of this international WiL group was driven by the existence of all too familiar male-only panels, speaker lists and authorship, as well as the under-representation of women in leadership positions at meetings and as principal investigators of clinical trials. Despite an extensive pool of outstanding female scientists and clinicians, and the implementation of diversity policies by leading journals such as The Lancet and Cell, WiL highlighted that less than a third of invited lymphoma authors in top journals were women.

Women in Lymphoma is led by an executive group consisting of the current Co-Chairs, Immediate Past Chair, Chair-Elect and Secretary, and supported by a Steering Committee (SC) responsible for initiatives aligned with WiL's mission. This SC  - initially formed in 2019 by 16 female lymphoma specialists from Australia, Argentina, Canada, France, the Netherlands, Singapore, the UK and the USA - was expanded to 23 members in 2020 following a targeted recruitment campaign for early career/emerging lymphoma leaders and the broader global membership. By expanding our SC membership to include 'junior' or emerging WiL leaders, we are providing a supportive space to articulate the needs of early-career WiL facing different systemic challenges in the modern era.

Under the slogan "if you can see it, you can be it", WiL developed a series of free webinars open to everyone and featuring only female speakers, highlighting the vast talent pool of female lymphoma specialists around the world. With the advent of the COVID pandemic and the inability to hold face-to-face educational meetings, these webinars provided important visibility. To date, a total of 52 webinars have been held, organised into 12 topical series, with great attendance and success. Each webinar features a panel of all-female speakers. In one of the most recent series - Series 11 on Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma - a total of 586 registrants from 48 countries attended the webinars either live or viewed the video recording later.

A common argument for the lack of equitable representation of women in global educational fora is that few women reach high levels in academia, resulting in a smaller pool of experts available to speak: “Let’s map the metrics”.  WiL believes that lymphoma conference organisers have both a responsibility and a commercial incentive to seek out female educators to facilitate a more equitable gender balance. Presenting at such international media is one of the currencies of academic advancement. In addition, women carry a significant burden of educational responsibilities in hospitals and universities, despite being significantly under-represented in the management of research portfolios. Aware of the importance of improving these metrics, WiL has made a major effort to analyse the participation of women both within the scientific committees of various international lymphoma meetings, as invited speakers, session chairs and first authors of oral communications. The industry sub-committee of WiL, developed in 2023, has considered initiatives to increase the representation of women on advisory boards, on steering committees for prospective clinical trials and as principal investigators in clinical trials, which will undoubtedly lead to a significant increase in women as first authors of relevant manuscripts in the field.

The future is bright! Since its inception in 2019, WiL's mission has led to tangible results. With more than 1,200 lymphoma clinicians and affiliated researchers from over 70 countries, WiL has become a driving force in the field. The quarterly 'WiLing Wednesdays' webinar sessions have significantly increased their audience and diversity, in direct proportion to the diversity of speakers. The capacity to disseminate scientific information is admirable and efficient. The governance of the group has evolved to include deliberate "succession" strategies; it is important to make way for WiL juniors - they are our future. 

Please see the announcements below welcoming new WiL to our team! 

WiL at EHA 2024 - Madrid, Spain - June 13 -16

This year, the EHA annual congress took place in Madrid from June 13th to 16th. With more than 15,000 attendees and 3,500 abstracts submitted, it was a great success in terms of participation and scientific quality.

Lymphoma was represented in the educational symposia, in the oral communication sessions and in the late breaking abstract session. There were 3 educational symposia related to lymphomas  - indolent disease, Hodgkin Lymphoma and Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma (DLBCL).

At the symposium on Indolent (non-follicular) lymphomas – “Moving Beyond Chemotherapy” moderated by Jessica Okosun from London - we had the opportunity to listen to three excellent presentations by Markus Raderer (Austria), Eva Giné Soca (Spain) and Christian Buske (Germany) who presented chemotherapy-free therapeutic options and focused on target treatments for patients with Marginal Zone Lymphoma (MZL), Mantle Cell Lymphoma (MCL) and Waldenström’s macroglobulinemia - relapsed or refractory to first-line treatments. Polychemotherapy seems to be further and further away from the therapeutic horizon for these diseases.

The symposium on Hodgkin Lymphoma moderated by Igor Aurer (Croatia) featured three high-level speakers - Christian Steidl (Canada) who presented novel data on the biology of the tumour microenvironment in Hodgkin's lymphoma, concluding that single cell analysis is the new standard for its characterisation, that there is a rationale for the use of immunotherapy treatments based on the expression of checkpoint inhibitors and that the development of spatial biomarkers is important to improve prognostic tools in this disease. Wendy Osborne (UK) presented the challenges of treating elderly patients considering the different biology of the disease, the co-morbidities present in this patient population, their under-representation in current clinical trials as well as the increased toxicity experienced and the need for dose reduction. Finally, Paul Bröckelmann summarised therapeutic strategies for first-line Hodgkin's lymphoma patients - in patients with localised disease and no poor prognostic factors, strategies based on the use of ABVD and radiotherapy and potential escalation to BEACOPP escalated only for PET-positive patients after two cycles of ABVD, in intermediate risk patients he advocates the use of escalated BEACOPP (2+2) using the PET interim to modify the strategy and introduces, for advanced stage patients, the use of BRECADD, adapting the number of cycles to the therapeutic response measured by PET after two cycles of chemotherapy.

The educational symposium on aggressive lymphomas was moderated by Sirpa Leppä (Finland). Gaël Roué (Spain) in his presentation “Tackling oncogenic signalling and tumour-microenvironment crosstalk in DLBCL”, indicated that the triple combination including an antiCD47, an antiCD20 and an anti PI3Kdelta triggers a synergistic tumour growth inhibition in vitro and in vivo that promotes macrophage infiltration and activation and results in a prolonged remission in vivo. Stefan Alig (Germany) reviewed the current information on the use of circulating tumour DNA as a diagnostic and prognostic tool in DLBCL and, finally, Andrew Davies (UK) showed the potential prognostic impact of genomics in the selection of the most appropriate therapeutic strategy for each patient.

In the Late Breaking Abstract Session, Michael Wang (US) presented the favourable results of the ECHO trial - a randomised double-blind phase 3 study demonstrating the superiority of the addition of acalabrutinib to the combination of bendamustine and rituximab in patients with newly diagnosed mantle cell lymphoma who are not candidates for autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.

The EHA congress was another opportunity for WiL members and supporters present in Madrid to network and share breakfast - this time with typical Madrid chocolate and churros! WiL networking events are very well attended and this time was no exception – unfortunately limited in time by the comprehensive schedule of the EHA congress. Senior and junior WiL joined the event along with several interested new WiL. WiL Change Champion (male member) Christian Steidl and female pharma representatives were very warmly welcomed also. WiL Co-Chair Florence Broussais took the lead in discussions on partnerships and collaboration with the pharmaceutical industry as well as the development of new projects aimed at facilitating access to new cell therapy strategies (CAR T-cells) through a process of mentoring young female haematologists in regions of the world lacking access. Equally important as the science,  our ability to network and to share new projects in a relaxed and friendly way aligns perfectly with WiL's mission and vision! We look forward to welcoming more WiL to the next in-person networking event at ASH in San Diego in early December 2024! 

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The MAUI declaration and D.R.I.V.E initiative

Recognising the urgent need for equitable representation in clinical trials participation in lymphoma and that underrepresentation of minoritised populations in need undermines the external validity of clinical trials, Sonali Smith and Judith Trotman on the WiL Steering Committee attended the D.R.I.V.E Lymphoma Leukaemia and Myeloma Investigators Summit, hosted at the Pan Pacific Lymphoma Conference on July 17.

Soni and Judith both signed the MAUI Pledge (link below) and urge all WiL members to do likewise and to consider D.R.I.V.E initiatives in their own clinical research. 

Each of us - as researchers, healthcare professionals, policymakers, and individuals involved in clinical research - plays a crucial role in promoting equity of opportunity and are encouraged to adapt the recommendations to address regional and cultural differences. Learn more about how to do so at https://www.indyhematologyreview.com/drive/

MAUI PLEDGE 

We pledge to strive for excellence in clinical research, advocate for equity of opportunity in clinical trial participation, and hold each other accountable in our mission to develop safer and more efficacious treatments for all by following the recommendations outlined herein. MAUI Pledge

The D.R.I.V.E initiative to fix the lack of diversity in cancer trials

D:  All clinical trials must include a Diversity Officer who is tasked just like a DSMB in safety to ensure a diversity plan is established, maintained, and modified during the course of each study to meet its accrual goals of inclusion and diversity. 

R:  Create a Ranking System for measuring the relative diversity of enrolled subjects in a clinical trial that are published with each trial. 

I:  Create an Individual/Personal diversity plan to ensure minority patients are enrolled or participating in clinical research.

V:  Verify and ensure that podium presentations at major conferences are preferentially given to clinical trials meeting diversity goals.

E:  Elevate, train, and recruit minority investigators to participate in all clinical trials. 

Women in Lymphoma - Sally Barrington, Soni Smith & Judith Trotman - presenting & representing at the Pan Pacific Lymphoma Conference 
Maui, Hawaii - July 15 - 19 2024
https://www.unmc.edu/cce/panpacificlymphoma/ 

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WiLing Wednesdays - free educational webinars

In May/June 2024, WiL hosted Series 12 of WiLing Wednesdays on the theme of Hodgkin Lymphoma. In the four weekly sessions, the 14 invited women in lymphoma gave presentations and led discussions on the following topics:

• Strategies to Tailor Treatment for Hodgkin Lymphoma
• Global Perspectives on Treatment of Newly Diagnosed and Relapsed/Refractory Hodgkin Lymphoma with a Focus on Advanced Stage
• Current/Forthcoming Clinical Trials in Hodgkin Lymphoma
• Nodular Lymphoma Predominant Hodgkin Lymphoma and Other Pathologic Phenomena in Hodgkin Lymphoma

Coming up next in October/November 2024 is Series 13 of WiLing Wednesdays with a focus on Indolent Lymphoma. There will be four weekly sessions with updates and in-depth presentations and discussion on Indolent lymphoma, chaired by Kim Linton and Clémentine Sarkozy, followed by a session on Career Development - relevant for all career stages - chaired by Florence Broussais. 

Details of the five weekly sessions are coming soon 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

WiLing Wednesdays - Series 12 - Hodgkin Lymphoma - Session 1 presenters (left to right, top to bottom) Angie Mae Rodday, Alison Moskowitz and Ragini Adams and Series co-chairs Sarah Rutherford and Carla Casulo.

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Recent publications involving WiL Steering Committee members

Primary central nervous system lymphomas: EHA-ESMO Clinical Practice Guideline for diagnosis, treatment and follow-up. Ferreri AJM, Illerhaus G, Doorduijn JK, Auer DP, Bromberg JEC, Calimeri T, Cwynarski K, Fox CP, Hoang-Xuan K, Malaise D, Ponzoni M, Schorb E, Soussain C, Specht L, Zucca E, Buske C, Jerkeman M, Dreyling M; EHA and ESMO Guidelines Committees. Hemasphere. 2024 Jun 4;8(6):e89. doi: 10.1002/hem3.89. eCollection 2024 Jun. PMID: 38836097

Impact and utility of follicular lymphoma GELF criteria in routine care: an Australasian Lymphoma Alliance study.Barraclough A, Agrawal S, Talaulikar D, Chong G, Yoo E, Cheah CY, Franco N, Nguyen B, Mutsando H, Tahir F, Trotman J, Huang J, Keane C, Lincoln M, Cochrane T, Johnston AM, Dickinson M, Opat S, McQuilten ZK, Wood EM, St George G, Hawkes EA. Haematologica. 2024 Mar 7. doi: 10.3324/haematol.2023.284538. Online ahead of print. PMID: 38450504 

Clinical Practice Recommendations for Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation and Cellular Therapies in Follicular Lymphoma: A Collaborative Effort on Behalf of the American Society of Transplantation and Cellular Therapy and the European Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation. Iqbal M, Kumar A, Dreger P, Chavez J, Sauter CS, Sureda AM, Bachanova V, Maziarz RT, Dreyling M, Smith SM, Jacobson C, Glass B, Casulo C, Oluwole OO, Montoto S, Advani R, Cohen J, Salles G, Hamad N, Kuruvilla J, Kahl BS, Shadman M, Kanate AS, Budde LE, Kamdar M, Flowers C, Hamadani M, Kharfan-Dabaja MA. Transplant Cell Ther. 2024 Jul 6:S2666-6367(24)00487-1. doi: 10.1016/j.jtct.2024.06.025. Online ahead of print. PMID: 38972511 

A Comparison of 3-Year Follow-up of ZUMA-5 (Axicabtagene Ciloleucel) With SCHOLAR-5 in Relapsed/Refractory Follicular Lymphoma.
Ghione P, Palomba ML, Ray MD, Limbrick-Oldfield EH, Owen J, Kanters S, Bobillo S, Ribiero MT, Jacobson CA, Neelapu SS, Ghesquieres H, Nahas M, Beygi S, Patel AR, Gribben JG.
Clin Lymphoma Myeloma Leuk. 2024 May;24(5):e191-e195.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.clml.2024.01.011. Epub 2024 Jan 24. PMID: 38365528

International Prognostic Score for Nodular Lymphocyte-Predominant Hodgkin Lymphoma.
Binkley MS, Flerlage JE, Savage KJ, Akhtar S, Steiner R, Zhang XY, Dickinson M, Prica A, Major A, Hendrickson PG, Hopkins D, Ng A, Casulo C, Baron J, Roberts KB, Al Kendi J, Balogh A, Ricardi U, Torka P, Specht L, De Silva R, Pickard K, Blazin LJ, Henry M, Smith CM, Halperin D, Brady J, Brennan B, Senchenko MA, Reeves M, Hoppe BS, Terezakis S, Talaulikar D, Picardi M, Kirova Y, Fergusson P, Hawkes EA, Lee D, Doo NW, Barraclough A, Cheah CY, Ku M, Hamad N, Mutsando H, Gilbertson M, Marconi T, Viiala N, Maurer MJ, Eichenauer DA, Hoppe RT; GLOW Consortium.
J Clin Oncol. 2024 Jul 1;42(19):2271-2280. doi: 10.1200/JCO.23.01655. Epub 2024 Mar 26. PMID: 38531001

Integrated single cell analysis reveals co-evolution of malignant B cells and tumor micro-environment in transformed follicular lymphoma.
Sarkozy C, Wu S, Takata K, Aoki T, Neriah SB, Milne K, Goodyear T, Strong C, Rastogi T, Hilton LK, Lai D, Sehn LH, Farinha P, Nelson BH, Weng A, Marra M, Scott DW, Craig JW, Steidl C, Roth A.
Cancer Cell. 2024 Jun 10;42(6):1003-1017.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.ccell.2024.05.011.
PMID: 38861923

World Cancer Congress - Geneva, Switzerland - September 17 - 19, 2024
https://www.worldcancercongress.org/ 

International Conference on Hematology and Blood Disorders - Paris, France - September 19-20, 2024
https://kindcongress.com/event/international-conference-on-hematology-and-blood-disorders-ichb-2024/ 

Lymphoma, Leukemia and Myeloma Congress  - New York, USA - 16 to 19 October, 2024 https://www.hmpglobalevents.com/llmcongress 

Blood 2024 (Haematology Society of Australia and New Zealand
Australian and New Zealand Society of Blood Transfusion
Thrombosis and Haemostasis society of Australia and New Zealand - Brisbane, Australia - 27 - 30 October, 2024 https://www.blood2024.com/ 

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 in lymphoma with the global WiL community.

Send your contributions to wil@lymphoma.org.au