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CML-CAB: Academic CAB

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11th CML-CAB: Academic CAB

There is a clear need for innovation / further development in CML beyond Treatment Free Remission (TFR) as well as a need for a continued dialogue among all CML stakeholders including CML advocacy leaders, pharmaceutical partners, scientists, medical experts, etc. to address the key unmet needs of the global CML community and devise ways to address those needs.

As a first step in this direction, on 12 October 2020 we held our very first Academic CML-CAB on “Mechanisms to cure CML beyond TFR” to which we had invited 8 scientific experts, all of them working on novel areas of CML research. 16 CML-CAB members covering 223 patient years attended this meeting, the main objectives of which were to

  • Build a dialogue with academic researchers
  • Reach consensus on what the key issues are in CML (status quo)
  • Establish a vision of where we want to be and how a cure could look like (beyond TFR)
  • Look at different approaches to cure and learn which of these are most promising to cure CML
  • Identify what we as a community can contribute to achieve the vision of a cure for CML, and define a “roadmap to cure”

Our outstanding moderator Eric Low started the meeting with a strong opening statement: The CML patient community recognises that – while significant advances in the treatment of CML have been made – more needs to be done. The CML-community has set the achievement of a cure for CML as being their number one strategic priority. While the community recognizes that this will be a complex undertaking, participants were reminded that the success will depend upon achieving alignment of the CML community and system stakeholders. As NASA required a set of plans to put a man on the moon, we too need a plan to achieve a cure in CML. The CML community´s aim is to put this road map in place.

Each of the researchers presented their approach to cure as well as the enablers they see and barriers they are facing. CML-CABs aim was to understand what is needed and what we as a community can do to support promising approaches towards a real cure. Following the individual presentations, there was a 45 minutes discussion round that enabled the sharing of different perspectives and offered all participants the chance to ask questions.

CML-CAB chair Jan Geissler thanked the research community for their engagement and for not resting until we have made that important step towards a cure, stressing again that the patient community is very determined to move that way.

Click below to access the full executive summary of this highly interesting meeting:

Academic CML CAB 12 Oct 2020 Executive Summary

A big THANK YOU to all participants for making this 1st Academic CML-CAB a success!