Dr. Emmanoulidies, Carol Gelber, Dr. Judith Gasson, Director of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA, Dr. Munshi and Dr. Tournilhac at the dinner reception held at the UCLA's Faculty Club.
Carol Gelber holding the Arnie Smokler memorial award dedicated to her late husband, Jack Gelber.
Drs. Treon and Pilarski at the dinner reception at the UCLA faculty club.
2nd International Patient & Physician Summit on Waldenström's Macroglobulinemia
November 7-9, 2003, Los Angeles, CA
One hundred fifty patients with Waldenstrom’s macroglobulinemia joined eleven clinical investigators from across the globe at the 2nd International Workshop on WM held in Los Angeles, CA. The summit, co-hosted by Dr. Christos Emmanouilides of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center at UCLA, and Dr. Steven Treon of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute helped to inform patients on the most recent clinical and basic science developments in WM.
The summit opened with a brief introduction by Dr. Christos Emmanouilides welcoming everyone to the program followed by presentations giving updates and overviews about what in known about the disease. This included talks on the clinical presentation, biology, genetics, and pathology of WM by Drs. Kyle, Pilarski, Fonseca, and Said respectively. The topics then shifted to the treatment and management of WM including a talk on when to treat by Dr. Kyle and an overview of current chemotherapy and antibody therapy options including perspectives on how to decide which therapy is most appropriate was given by the summit co-chairs, Drs. Emmanouilides and Treon. The conference ended with a session devoted to new and upcoming therapies such as Zevlin, Thalidomide/Revamid, Genasense, Velcade, and vaccine therapy by Drs. Emmanouilides, Munshi, and Nichols. Also included during this time was an overview of Auto and Allogeneic transplantation in WM by Dr. Tournilhac, a talk on IgM related neuropathies by Dr. Levine, and a perspective of the impact of the new HIPPA legislation by Fred Tobia.
The 2nd
International Summit on WM was dedicated to the memory of Mr. Jack
Gelber of New York City who was awarded the Arnie Smokler award in
celebration of his life and efforts in helping patients with WM. Mr.
Gelber who led the New York City WM Support Group, was also an
active board member of the IWMF, and was the editor of the "Torch",
a publication devoted to bringing timely updates on WM to patients
and physicians. Mr. Gelber's wife, Carol accepted the award on her
late husband's behalf.
We would like the thank, the Research Fund for Waldenstroms, IDEC
Pharmaceuticals, Amgen, Genentech, the International Waldenstrom’s
Macroglobulinemia Foundation, Celgene Corporation, Berlex
Laboratories, and the Doubletree Hotel-Los Angeles/Westwood for
their generous support of this summit.