It’s time again for hematology’s biggest event!  This years 64th annual American Society of Hemotoloy (ASH) Meeting is being held in New Orleans, December 10-13.

In 2019, before most of us had even heard of COVID-19, ASH was held in Orlando Florida with a whopping in-person attendance of over 30,000. In 2020, like many other organizations, ASH’s Annual Meeting was fully virtual. For the 2021 event, the registration price for face to face and digital was the same, and the event produced equivalent content for both audiences.  Programs ran simultaneously for online and in-person audiences with livestreamed content. With the combined in-person and digital audience, ASH reached its pre-pandemic attendance level of 30,000, with only13,000 in-person attendees.

ASH officials say the approach for the 2022 ASH Annual Meeting, is to create “two distinct offerings and two loyal audiences.” The goal is to bring the in-person component to 23,000 while also growing the digital audience, for a total of more than 35,000.

Whichever way you slice it, that’s huge! Of course ASH deals with every kind of blood related disease, and myeloma is only one of them.  But when attending ASH you can hardly help but feel that our little disease is the star of the show.  There’s just so much happening.

First of all, there’s a whole additional day of Satellite Symposia. For myeloma patients ASH really begins on Friday the 9th when we choose from programs like:

• Putting the CAR(T) Before the Horse: Practicalities of T Cell–Activating Therapies in Multiple Myeloma
• The Road to Remission in Multiple Myeloma:Expert Guidance on Using BCMA-Targeted Options to Enhance Clinical Outcomes
• A Conversation With the Myeloma Experts:Making Sense of the Evolving Treatment Landscape
• Exploiting BCMA in the Treatment of Multiple Myeloma: How Could Bispecific Antibodies and T-Cell Engagement Impact Relapsed/ Refractory Disease

But the real magic begins on Saturday with the presentation of abstracts, (heads up there are over 1000 of them containing a reference to myeloma) posters and papers.  

Don’t take my word for it.  Check it out here

Much will be written about ASH in the next few weeks.  I’ll be hanging on every word. ASH! It never disappoints. Get ready to be blown away.

Editor's note:  Vicki works hard to educate herself about myeloma and share what she learns with others.  She serves as a volunteer HealthTree Coach sharing her personal experience with myeloma and resources with others.  

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