Patients, family and donors invited to special bone marrow transplant event in Frankfurt, Germany

The 45th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) will be held from 24-27 March in the host city of Frankfurt. On the Sunday of the Meeting – 24th of March – the 13th Patient, Family and Donor Day will be taking place and will form an integral part of the scientific programme. Also for the first time in Frankfurt, the programme includes a second parallel session dedicated to patient advocates.

The introduction of new drugs and graft manipulation techniques, combined with changes in the clinical pattern of transplantation, particularly in the outpatient setting, has led to remarkable developments in the field over the last few years. The programme is aimed at exploring both scientific trends, aftercare and the special relationship which is often created between donors and receivers as well as between clinical BMT personnel and patients and their families.

Peter Bader, EBMT 2019 Congress Co-President and Head Division Stem Cell Transplantation & Immunology, Children & Adolescents University Hospital Frankfurt Goethe University, explains: “An international panel of specialists will talk about new possibilities in stem cell transplants, new treatments possibilities in GvHD, fertility and sexuality, psycho-oncological support and social aspects” Professor Bader adds: “The programme offers a broad range of topics and we hope that the participants will find this event useful.”

The day will be concluded with personal experiences from a former CAR T patient and a teenager donor from Germany who donated her stem cells twice to a patient to help him overcome severe aplastic anaemia, a rare blood disease.

Bregje Verhoeven, Chair of the EBMT Patient, Family and Donor Committee, says: “We are very much looking forward to the upcoming Patient, Family and Donor Day. Our objective is to inform and empower BMT patients, their family members and patient advocates so that they can work hand in hand with transplant teams to achieve the best possible result.”

The event will be held at the Messe Frankfurt. Registration to this unique and memorable day is free and interested participants are invited to register online. Onsite registration will be also possible but participants are strongly recommended to register online to secure their lunch spots.

In addition, the sessions will be live-streamed, enabling anyone who cannot attend the meeting to follow the sessions.

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The event will be held at the Messe Frankfurt. Registration to this unique and memorable day is free and interested participants are invited to register online.

EBMT gratefully acknowledges the supporters of Patient, Family and Donor Day: Anthony Nolan; DKMS and Josep Carreras Leukaemia Foundation.

Note to editors:

Germany, with more than 40 transplant centers and more than 3,000 allogeneic stem cell procedures, is one of the most active countries for Stem Cell Transplantation in Europe. Germany is also known for its Donor Registries, with over 7.5 million volunteer donors providing hematopoietic stem cells all over the world.