ASH outlines hematology research agenda

Report calls for funding commitment to seven ‘high-yield’ areas, including stem cells and regenerative medicine

The American Society of Hematology recently issued a report that identified seven key research areas with the greatest potential to improve patient outcomes.

The society encouraged federal agencies to coordinate funding efforts with this agenda in mind, noting the priority areas outlined in the ASH Agenda for Hematology Research are most likely to produce the greatest return on investment.

The seven priority areas designated in the report are:

• Stem cells and regenerative medicine: Improve technologies that can use induced pluripotent stem cells to treat hematologic diseases.
• Myelodysplastic syndrome and acute myeloid leukemia: Find an effective and personalized treatment for the elderly.
• Hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: Increase success rates by improving management of graft versus-host disease.
• Sickle cell disease: Reduce the barriers to care, burden of pain, end-organ injury and premature death.
• Deep vein thrombosis and venous thromboembolism: Understand the risk factors and develop targeted therapies.
• Childhood leukemia: Improve cure rates by performing coordinated research on novel targeted therapies.
• Translating laboratory advances into the clinic: Use novel genomic technologies to improve treatment of hematologic diseases.

Broad impact

Members of the society’s Committee on Scientific Affairs, which developed the agenda, said hematology research has translated to remarkable gains in patient care and helped to reduce the burden on the health care system.

“Because blood runs through every organ and tissue in the body, discoveries made by hematologists about its structure and function have an enormous ripple effect that extends far beyond our discipline to areas such as oncology, cardiology and surgery,”

Armand Keating, MD, president of ASH, said in a press release. “Tomorrow’s hematologic discoveries are guaranteed to have a dramatic impact on the future of health in America and around the world in all areas of medicine. For that reason alone, hematology research should be placed among the top priorities in health care.”

Robert Hromas, MD, chair of the department of medicine at the University of Florida and Shands Hospital and chair of the ASH Committee on Scientific Affairs, told HemOnc Today the research agenda lays out a blueprint that would streamline research efforts while preventing duplication and wasted effort.

The benefits of a coordinated commitment to “high-yield areas” would extend beyond the health care system and into the overall economy, Hromas said.

“The ASH Research Agenda will reduce the burden of health on the economy in several ways by translating important scientific findings into effective new therapies that will reduce hospital length of stay and readmission rates,” Hromas said in an interview. “The ASH Research Agenda points out where the most effective areas to spend scarce research dollars are and, thereby, increases the taxpayer’s bang for the buck.”

The research agenda is important to community hematologists and oncologists because it defines major problem areas and outlines methods for addressing them, Hromas said.

“This research agenda was written by practicing clinicians for the non-clinicians who control federal and foundation research funding,” Hromas said. “It puts into one document and synthesizes issues that previously were discussed in diffuse and disconnected forums. It gives a voice to the practicing clinician who faces these problems daily. The research agenda points out several studies that could dramatically alter the daily practice of the community oncologist [and hematologist] if funded.”

‘Enormous’ opportunities

Brian J. Bolwell, MD, FACP, chairman of the Taussig Cancer Institute at Cleveland Clinic, told HemOnc Today he was struck by the focus on novel genomic therapies.

“All cancer research is moving inexorably toward identifying genetic abnormalities and trying to find interventions that target them,” Bolwell said in an interview.

As an example, he cited the effectiveness of TKI inhibitors in chronic myeloid leukemia.

“The success story with CML is a model for how cancer care evolved and will continue to evolve,” he said. “Whole-genome sequencing provides us with a huge amount of data on the genesis of cancer and the abnormalities associated with it.”

Bolwell said ASH identified “a major area of opportunity” by focusing on DVT and VTE, particularly among hospitalized patients.

The use of stem cells as regenerative medicine also is an important target, he said.

“Opportunities for that area of research are unlimited, and we are just scratching the surface,” he said. “We may eventually be able to help drive a stem cell to do what we want it to do. We need to be more sophisticated with our research, but we’re not there yet.”

The current funding environment is challenging, but the return on investment in academic oncology research could be “enormous,” Bolwell said.

“The status quo isn’t good enough,” he said. “Those of us in academic medicine in cancer want to make things better. The funding can do that, and if we follow this agenda, we hope to achieve that goal.”

Disclosure:

• Drs. Keating, Hromas and Bolwell report no relevant financial disclosures.