I’m not only specialised in ALL but also AML, but tomorrow I will talk on Philadelphia chromosome-positive ALL. This is a very, very interesting field because it’s moving quickly because of the introduction not only of tyrosine kinase inhibitors but new options like immunotherapy with inotuzumab, blinatumomab and the others.  What is really interesting is to see how fast these things are going because when I started haematology, I can’t remember how many years it was, probably 25 years ago, patients with Ph positive ALL cannot survive except if transplanted, if they receive a transplantation. Today the question is should we continue to transplant these patients because the advances have been made with the drugs. So this is really interesting to discuss that with my colleagues and the cooperative group representatives here.

What is your own opinion on the use of TKIs?

TKIs have been a great advance in Ph positive ALL, as in CML. So we will certainly continue to use these drugs. But we are combining these drugs with other new drugs and antibodies and we do not have a large study of this chemo-free, chemotherapy free, approach with only TKIs and antibodies but we will have. Certainly this is the next step. So no transplantation and maybe one day no chemotherapy, only TKIs and antibodies.