The virtuous alliance between the Gitmo Italian Group for bone marrow transplant, hematopoietic stem cells and cell therapy and the Ail Italian Association against leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma in support of hematological patients and scientific research is renewed and strengthened by finding new areas of common interest. Hence the intention to establish a national day entirely dedicated to hematopoietic stem cell transplant patients starting from 2025; the announcement was made today during the meeting with the press, organized as part of the annual Gitmo national meeting underway since yesterday in Naples.
“National Stem Cell Transplant Patient Day is a sign of the ever-increasing attention towards our patients – declares Massimo Martino, president of Gitmo and director of the Uoc Bone Marrow Transplant Center, interim director of the Uoc of Hematology, Oncohematology and Radiotherapy Department of the Grand Metropolitan Hospital Bianchi-Melacrino-Morelli of Reggio Calabria – The objective is to turn the spotlight not only on blood cancers but on all aspects that concern the quality of life and daily life of the transplanted and possibly cured patient. The problems and sequelae resulting from a transplant are many: nutritional, sexual, psychological, work-related, health-related and organizational in daily life and medical checks.”
The Day will be celebrated every year, “probably in spring, with the support of Ail and bone marrow transplant centers throughout the national territory – adds Martino – with awareness and information initiatives and will see the involvement of specialists, patients, institutions national and local, media and public. We must remember that the transplant patient spends at least two years of his life facing a very tiring and complex journey; once he has exited the most delicate phase he must return to normality and this poses a challenge for him and his loved ones other important challenges for which all possible help is needed from the specialists who are treating him.”
“Returning home – states Giuseppe Toro, national president of Ail – poses numerous problems: from nutrition to personal hygiene, from pets present in the house to taking medicines; from sexuality to returning to work or school, from vaccinations to holidays, up to the need or otherwise for psychological support. Ail discussed these problems and, as always, together with Gitmo found a common point of interest on the need to shine a spotlight on the figure of the transplant patient at the level of public opinion, the media and the main national and local institutions . Thus was born the idea of officially establishing, starting from 2025, a national day dedicated to the patient who has undergone a haematopoietic stem cell transplant, which will be celebrated every year”. Despite the great progress made by scientific research and technological and therapeutic advances, allogeneic and autologous transplant is considered a highly specialized procedure, however burdened by a significant risk of recurrence.
“Recurrence is the leading cause of graft failure; in fact, if we observe 100 cases of failure, recurrence is the most frequent cause in at least 60% of these – explains Fabio Ciceri, past president of Gitmo, director of the Hematology and Bone Marrow Transplant Unit of Irccs San Raffaele Hospital in Milan and full professor of Hematology Vita-Salute San Raffaele University of Milan – the incidence of relapse is variable and depends on the severity of the disease and the degree of therapeutic response of the disease obtained before the transplant. This is the reason why, once the indication for transplant has been established, the objective of achieving the best pre-transplant therapeutic response is very important to obtain the best guarantee of having, after the transplant, a remission window that allows the immune system of the donor to establish an immune response, to control the disease and cure it definitively”.
For this reason “today – adds Ciceri – in the post-transplant phase, in patients who we know are at high risk of recurrence, we apply pharmacological therapies that can help contain and control the growth of the disease, precisely in the early phase at greatest risk of recurrence” .
Gitmo – reports a note – is the only scientific society that represents transplantation in Italy and provides data on transplantation activity to the competent national authority, the National Transplant Center. To date, 90 transplant centers are Gitmo accredited and of these, 60 carry out allogeneic activities. Furthermore, approximately a quarter of transplant work is performed on children at pediatric centres.
Italian transplantology of bone marrow, hematopoietic stem cells and Car-T cell therapies is very active: the outcomes are excellent – the note reports – the numbers of transplant procedures for patients with blood diseases are stable or slightly increasing; continuity of care and assistance is guaranteed throughout the national territory during and after the emergency due to the pandemic, with numbers in line with the pre-Covid trend.
In 2023, 2,000 allogeneic donor transplants were carried out, the year before there had been 1,930 and in the midst of the pandemic, 1,900; the main blood diseases for which this transplant is most commonly used are acute myeloid leukemia and acute lymphoblastic leukemia. There are approximately 3,500 autologous transplants per year with a constant trend and carried out especially for multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas and Hodgkin’s lymphomas. Regarding the Car-T cell therapies that are used in 40 Italian centers, around 900 have been carried out since 2019.
Furthermore, a fundamental part of Gitmo’s activity concerns social and health care, both through the collection and dissemination of scientific information and through the promotion and implementation of clinical studies and interdisciplinary consensus. Gitmo scientific research is very active and the Scientific Society avails itself of the collaboration of AIL to finance and carry out various prospective and observational studies.
“We currently have several prospective studies that have just been completed, are underway or are in the planning phase which involve a large part of the Centers registered with Gitmo, currently around 60 are accredited for allogeneic transplantation and around 80 for autologous transplantation – underlines Luca Castagna, Vice President of Gitmo and Director of the Uosd Bone Marrow Transplant and Cellular Therapy Unit, Ao Ospedali Riuniti Villa Sofia Cervello of Palermo – These studies touch on different areas of transplantation, from the prevention of bacterial or viral infections to the improvement of conditioning, to the improvement of the reaction of the graft against the host (Gvhad – graft versus host disease), the main complication of transplantation. Therefore, a very broad panorama which is aimed at different types of transplant patients”..
In Reggio Calabria on 25 May 2024 the 1st Gitmo-Ail Day dedicated to the patient who has undergone a hematopoietic stem cell transplant or Car-T cell therapy will be celebrated – concludes the note – for the occasion it will be organized by the Grande Transplant Center Bianchi-Melacrino-Morelli Metropolitan Hospital of Reggio Calabria a meeting entitled “Beyond every challenge”, aimed at patients and former patients who have undergone an autologous or allogeneic transplant or cell therapy with Car-T, and their families.
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