Jeffery J. Auletta, MD, explains what to expect when members of the ASTCT® and NMDP℠ ACCESS Initiative discuss their work to identify and dismantle access and outcome barriers to HCT and cellular therapy.

The four oral abstract sessions on the agenda for Feb.13 are among more than a dozen oral abstract sessions included in this year’s program.

The pediatric plenary will focus on reducing the toxicity of conditioning regimens and transplant in general without compromising overall survival and event-free survival, said Session Chair Miki Nishitani, MD.

Three experts will discuss the underlying mechanisms of refractory acute graft-versus-host disease that may guide the design of future clinical trials. Victor Tkachev, PhD, shares what to expect.

Ex vivo gene therapy for malignancies and genetic diseases is time consuming, expensive, and physically taxing on patients. John DiPersio, MD, PhD, and Hans-Peter Kiem, MD, PhD, preview this joint session presented by ASTCT and ASGCT on the in vivo alternatives.

Larisa Broglie, MD, MS, will give an overview of a study being developed as part of the Blood & Marrow Transplant Clinical Trials Network, which aims to build a biorepository of samples from patients with non-malignant diseases who will undergo hematopoietic cell transplantation and gene therapy for select diseases.

Caitlin Elgarten, MD, MSCE, previews the positive developments and ongoing challenges that will be addressed in this session on drug development for the treatment and prevention of viral infection in children after transplant.