The American Society of Hematology (ASH) is the world’s largest professional society serving clinicians and scientists worldwide studying and working on blood diseases.
ASH aims to improve the understanding, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of disorders involving blood, bone marrow, and vascular systems. The society promotes and supports clinical and scientific hematology research, organizing education, training, and advocacy activities.
On 3 December 2020, ASH organized a virtual scientific workshop on the “Interplay between coagulation and malignancy,” which gathered researchers and clinicians to present and discuss recent findings on the relationship between coagulation and the malignant state, including tumor progression and thrombotic complications.
It was organized into four sessions:
The first session
“MicroRNA and role in cancer-associated thrombosis,“ highlighted emerging data from Dr Keith McCrae (Cleveland Clinic, OH) and Dr. Julia Oto (Medical Research Institute Hospital La Fe Valencia, Spain) on specific miRNAs and their association with thrombosis in solid tumor malignancies.
The second session
“Interplay between the hematologic system and solid tumor progression,“ focused on the relationship between coagulation and tumor progression. It included a talk by Dr Laurence Panicot-Dubois (Aix Marseille University, Marseille, France) on the critical role that platelets play in tumor growth. Dr. Oluwatoyosi Muse (Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA) presented her data on the induction of the unfolded protein response leading to the release of pro-coagulant microvesicles.
The third session
“Modeling predictors and outcomes in myeloproliferative neoplasms and thrombosis,” included a talk by Dr Denise Jackson (RMIT University, Victoria, Australia) about mechanistic data on different tyrosine kinase inhibitors and induction of thrombosis in different models.
The fourth session
“Late-breaking research presentations,” featured emerging work in the field, including a talk by Dr. Yohei Hisada on the relationship between PAI-1 cancer cell expression and thrombosis in pancreatic cancer.
A total of 1,300 participants attended the workshop, which garnered considerable attention garnered on social media. This workshop brought the basic science and clinical research community together to foster future collaborations and provided an insightful discussion on the complex relationship between coagulation and the malignant state.