Harry S. Jacob, MD, DHC

The ASH Annual Meeting and Exposition once again featured some particularly interesting presentations in the field of benign hematology.

I suspect every hematologist has been faced with the difficult task of evaluating a patient with thrombocytopenia following open-heart surgery.

The combination of 26,000 attendees and a seemingly equal number of abstracts can cause intellectual dissonance, at least in folks my age.

Harry S. Jacob

I recently was asked to serve as a medical expert in a class-action suit against several major providers of bathroom and kitchen products.

Every December, we ask members of the HemOnc Today Editorial Board for their suggestions about the most important developments in the fields of hematology and oncology during the past year.

In 1982, groundbreaking work from Joel L. Moake, MD, a HemOnc Today section editor, and colleagues demonstrated that thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura results from platelet agglutination induced by very large polymers of von Willebrand’s factor released from activated endothelium.

I ran a fellowship program in hematology and oncology for more than 30 years. Our faculty chipped in and bought books each year for graduating fellows. Early on, these included Wintrobe’s famous text; later, the multi-edited texts from the likes of DeVita, Hoffman, Schafer, Williams, etc. For a while, we provided Jandl’s award-winning, single-authored Blood: Textbook of Hematology. Jandl’s marvelous prose equaled that of Lewis Thomas’ (also award-winning) Lives of a Cell. It is hard to say whether these two latter gifts were appreciated as much as the drier compendia of multiple editors. Nonetheless, if I still had influence on our current fellowship program at the University of Minnesota, I would send our matriculating progeny off to battle cancer with a new, spellbinding literary gem written by a recent Massachusetts General Hospital hem/onc fellow.

Our tradition of briefly discussing some of the most interesting hematology and oncology papers of the past year continues. Dr. Bertino and I, assisted by suggestions from our HemOnc Today subeditors, provide the following with the caveat that we may have missed a meritorious article or two.

HemOnc Today does not usually review books, but a recent one warrants high recommendation. Invasion of the Prostate Snatchers is a well-written piece that will provide a much needed safe harbor through the shoals of prostate cancer decision-making for oncologists and their confused patients.