One in eight cases of cancer in the world is derived from blood cells, the lymphatic system and the bone marrow. The so-called malignant hematopathies, such as leukemias and lymphomas, are divided into more than a hundred different subtypes that are now being characterized at the cellular and molecular levels. Among them there are subgroups with a survival rate close to 90%, while in others it is the mortality approaching 90%. What is the difference between them?
Among the plenary conferences were those of Dr. Louis Staudt, Director of the National Cancer Center at the US Genomics Branch, a global expert in lymphoma-causing mutations; and the closing of the event by Dr. Michel Sadelain, Director of the Cell Engineering Center at Sloan-Kettering Memorial Cancer Center in New York, one of the pioneers in developing cell therapies, which by modifying a person’s immune cells can attack the cancer that that patient is suffering.
