Welcome Message
Shuichi Taniguchi
President
The 42nd Annual Meeting of the Japan Society
for Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation
(Department of Hematology, Toranomon Hospital)
The 42nd Annual Meeting of the Japan Society for Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation will be held in Tokyo International Forum next March. It has been 14 years since the last meeting held in Tokyo (run by Dr. Sakamaki, Tokyo Metropolitan Cancer and Infectious Diseases Center Komagome Hospital). Currently, so many high-rise buildings or facilities affiliated to Olympic/Paralympic Games are under construction. We welcome all of you to come to “new Tokyo” when many of them be completed.
During the past 2 decades, 2 huge walls standing before us in transplant field have gone. Firstly, elderly patients or those with comorbidities, formerly considered as ineligible, can now be transplant candidates due to the introduction of mini or non-myeloablative transplant. Secondary, due to the expansion of public BM/PB and CB banks, and innovation in transplant using HLA-mismatched donors, almost all transplant candidates can now have appropriate donors at right time. In addition, novel drugs other than transplant, such as molecular targeted agents, or cellular immunotherapy, have also been increasing rapidly these days.
However, we should realize that the outcome of patients with hematological diseases has never been satisfactory. Patients are still scared of life threatening events during the course of the treatment. They and their family have to make a huge sacrifice socially as well as financially to receive treatment when they themselves are still in the middle of the confusion. They may face and have to endure worse outcomes (accompanying physicians as well). We, transplant staffs, need to stand beside the patients in tough situation and to find out the way for them to go better, when extremely heavy responsibility for life is on our shoulders. This meeting should be the place where staffs in transplant get together, share their experiences (goods and bads), and stimulate each other. I hope this meeting will be fruitful for many of the participants so that they can apply better ways to their patients.
The poster for the meeting, “Rising Venus”, was made by a photographer and my old friend, Mr. Koshu Endo. The Venus shining in the night sky looks to me as if the ray of light leading us toward the right direction after long struggle in finding solutions for patients.
During the past 2 decades, 2 huge walls standing before us in transplant field have gone. Firstly, elderly patients or those with comorbidities, formerly considered as ineligible, can now be transplant candidates due to the introduction of mini or non-myeloablative transplant. Secondary, due to the expansion of public BM/PB and CB banks, and innovation in transplant using HLA-mismatched donors, almost all transplant candidates can now have appropriate donors at right time. In addition, novel drugs other than transplant, such as molecular targeted agents, or cellular immunotherapy, have also been increasing rapidly these days.
However, we should realize that the outcome of patients with hematological diseases has never been satisfactory. Patients are still scared of life threatening events during the course of the treatment. They and their family have to make a huge sacrifice socially as well as financially to receive treatment when they themselves are still in the middle of the confusion. They may face and have to endure worse outcomes (accompanying physicians as well). We, transplant staffs, need to stand beside the patients in tough situation and to find out the way for them to go better, when extremely heavy responsibility for life is on our shoulders. This meeting should be the place where staffs in transplant get together, share their experiences (goods and bads), and stimulate each other. I hope this meeting will be fruitful for many of the participants so that they can apply better ways to their patients.
The poster for the meeting, “Rising Venus”, was made by a photographer and my old friend, Mr. Koshu Endo. The Venus shining in the night sky looks to me as if the ray of light leading us toward the right direction after long struggle in finding solutions for patients.