This year's European Haematology Association congress in Barcelona has seen the largest registration since it began 15 years ago, with over 9,000 doctors from around the world in attendance. The programme is covering all aspects of research and clinical care in haematological cancers.

A number of new and innovative treatment approaches were presented.

In the area of lymphoma, a number of interesting studies were presented. In the PRIMA study, 2-year maintenance therapy with rituximab in patients with follicular lymphoma, assessed in 25 countries in almost 1200 patients, was found to result in significant improvement in progression free survival independent of age, FLIPI score and response after induction, as well as time to next anti-lymphoma treatment and time to next chemotherapy. These outcomes were associated with an acceptable side effect profile.

In patients with Hodgkin lymphoma, toxicity is a significant problem with current chemo/radiotherapy regimens. A number of groups have investigated the possibility of reducing the intensity of therapy to reduce toxicity while maintaining a good outcome. One such study examined the effect of reducing standard chemotherapy (ABVD) cycles from 4 to 2 and using a lower dose of radiation (20 Gy instead of 30 Gy) and found that this was sufficient to achieve good rates of remission and prolonged survival with reduced toxicity.

In resistant/relapsing lymphoma patients, the role of a novel high dose chemotherapy strategy with bendamustine in adjunct to etoposide, aracytin and melphalan (BEEAM) followed by autologous stem cell rescue has been found to be safe and highly effective in 33 patients treated in a Phase I/II study.

Epigenetic therapy is playing an increasingly important role in myelodysplastic syndromes, and is also being investigated in other cancer subgroups. By restoring normal function to affected cancer genes, the DNA methyltransferase inhibitor azacitidine has demonstrated efficacy and low levels of toxicity in myelodysplastic syndromes and is now being investigated for the treatment of leukaemias and myeloproliferative disorder, as well as solid tumours. DNA methyltrasferase inhibitors are being investigated for a possible role in maintenance and sensitisation therapy.

Multiple myeloma is the second most common blood cancer and is an area of active research. Proteasome inhibitors are new and potentially effective drugs for the treatment of multiple myeloma. Carfilzomib has been investigated in relapsing/refractory patients with multiple myeloma with or without prior bortezomib exposure. Overall responses in bortezomib naive patients reached 53% with a median duration of response greater than or equal to 8.8 months, and were associated with mild side effects.