HARMONY presents new insights in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) at the EHA2021 Virtual Congress

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HARMONY Alliance

11 Jun, 2021, 08:00 BST

EHA2021 Abstract S143 and EP631

THE HAGUE, The Netherlands, June 11, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- The HARMONY Alliance will share new insights in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) at the virtual Annual Congress of the European Hematology Association (EHA2021 from 9-17 June 2021). Dr Larry Mansouri of Karolinska Institutet will give an oral presentation and Dr Thomas Chatzikonstantinou of the European Research Initiative on CLL will give a poster presentation.

The clinical course of CLL is highly variable. Some patients will never require treatment whereas others will develop a treatment need over time. The disease is highly heterogeneous from a genomic perspective as well. A limited number of recurrently mutated genes are observed in more than 10% of patients, while hundreds of other genes have been found to be mutated in only in a fraction of patients. As a result, thousands of patients need to be studied to obtain robust insights into the role of these mutations in the course of the disease. The HARMONY Big Data Platform offers excellent opportunities to do just that.

Oral presentation

At EHA2021, Dr Larry Mansouri of Karolinska Institutet will give an oral presentation about the results of a HARMONY research project that aimed to assess the clinical impact of recurrent gene mutations in CLL. Professor Richard Rosenquist Brandell was the principal investigator in this study.

Centers across Europe were asked to sequence the ten mostly commonly mutated genes in CLL in their patients. There has been fantastic interest, therefore the cohort now consists of more than 4,600 patients. The frequency of the different mutations were studied. The team also studied the association of the genes with time-to-first-treatment and overall survival. This results may allow clinicians to give patients a more reliable estimate of what they can expect in terms of the clinical course of the disease. In addition, it may affect treatment choices.

Poster presentation

Dr Thomas Chatzikonstantinou (European Research Initiative on CLL, INAB, CERTH, Thessaloniki) will present a poster about other malignancies in the history of CLL. The researchers retrospectively evaluated data from 13,808 patients from 64 centers. They report strong associations between the development of other hematological malignancies, especially MDS/AML, and certain biological features, as well as treatment for CLL, with a highly relevant risk for patients treated with CIT, particularly the FCR regimen. In contrast, the development of solid tumors appeared unaffected by treatment administration, prompting further investigation in specific patient subgroups that will be presented at the congress.

More information

  • Link to the Oral session New biological and translational insights in CLL to find out more: abstract S143: p408-4 (S143) CLINICAL IMPACT OF RECURRENT GENE MUTATIONS IN CHRONIC LYMPHOCYTIC LEUKEMIA: A RETROSPECTIVE, MULTI-CENTER COHORT STUDY BY ERIC, THE EUROPEAN RESEARCH INITIATIVE ON CLL, IN HARMONY Dr. Larry Mansouri.

  • Link to the Poster session Chronic lymphocytic leukemia and related disorders – Clinical: abstract EP631: OTHER MALIGNANCIES IN THE HISTORY OF CHRONIC LYMPHOCYTIC LEUKEMIA – A RETROSPECTIVE, MULTICENTER COHORT STUDY BY ERIC, THE EUROPEAN RESEARCH INITIATIVE ON CLL, IN HARMONY - Dr. Thomas Chatzikonstantinou.

  • www.harmony-alliance.eu | #bigdataforbloodcancer | @HARMONYnetEU

  • Ellen de Waal, HARMONY Manager Communication and Dissemination, e.dewaal@ehaweb.org

The HARMONY Alliance (HARMONY and HARMONY PLUS) is a public-private European Network of Excellence for Big Data in Hematology, established in January 2017. Our mission is to unlock and spread valuable knowledge on hematologic malignancies (blood cancers) among a large number of stakeholders, with the

goal to harness and mine Big Data to speed up the development of improved treatments for patients

and more effective treatment strategies.

  • HARMONY and HARMONY PLUS are funded through the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), Europe's largest public-private initiative aiming to speed up the development of better and safer medicines for patients. Funding is received from the IMI 2 Joint Undertaking and is listed under grant agreement for HARMONY No. 116026 and grant agreement for HARMONY PLUS No. 945406. This Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA).

  • HARMONY: 53 Partners and 43 Associated Members, including 7 European Patient Organizations from 18 countries. Budget: 40 million | Period: January 2017- December 2021.

  • HARMONY PLUS: 39 Partners from 10 countries. Budget 12 million | Period: October 2020 – September 2023

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SOURCE HARMONY Alliance