High science, high tech, high hopes: what stood out at ASH 2024

The ASH Annual Meeting 2024 in sunny San Diego (7-10 December) lived up to its reputation as the premier event in hematology. From game-changing innovation to creative inspiration, this year’s meeting felt like a perfect blend of science, tech, and humanity. Two of our team on the ground – Dr Susanne Bobadilla, PhD (Executive Director, Global Medical Strategy) and Georgia Attfield, PharmD (Clinical Management Consultant) – dive into the highlights.

1. The mic-drop moment? A new standard of care in B-ALL

If there was a headline act, it was the plenary session’s unveiling of results from the Phase 3 study of blinatumomab in standard-risk pediatric B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia (B-ALL). Turns out, blinatumomab is setting a new standard of care. Pairing this immunotherapy with chemo achieved a jaw-dropping 96% three-year disease-free survival rate, compared to 87.9% with chemo alone. The next big questions? How do we make blinatumomab accessible worldwide? And how can we make the most of it to dial down chemotherapy intensity and reduce the horrible side effects patients experience? If we can, blinatumomab will be paradigm-shifting.

2. Spotlight on Sickle Cell Disease (SCD)

Sickle cell was front and center this year, reflecting urgent unmet needs. The buzz wasn’t just about science but also about real-world challenges in care and clinical practice.

New therapies on the horizon: The pipeline for new SCD therapies is active, driving opportunities for personalized care. The gene therapy market is heating up – with CRISPR/Cas9 and advances in prime editing showing real promise – but concerns remain about accessibility due to high costs. Meanwhile, allogenic SCT remains a proven staple. Real-world data from 36 countries showed it offers high cure rates with low GVHD incidence in SCD, making it the benchmark treatment despite emerging gene therapies.
Plenary shoutout: The PIVOT trial highlighted hydroxyurea’s potential for HbSC disease, slashing vaso-occlusive episodes (VOEs) and hospitalizations – a game-changer worth watching.
Emergency Department (ED) standards: Multiple presentations emphasized the need to improve (and measure) implementation of guidelines to administer analgesics within 60 minutes of ED presentation, including a range of options, like intranasal fentanyl care for VOE. The efforts are gaining traction, though not without debate. Medicare is considering adopting ASH’s new SCD quality measure in its Hospital Outpatient Quality Reporting Program and Rural Emergency Hospital Quality Reporting Program.
AI in SCD: Predictive AI models are now outperforming traditional methods like the HCT-CI index in forecasting transplant outcomes. The tech’s potential is huge, but ethical questions – privacy, bias, accessibility – are still major talking points. More on that later.
DEI: The disproportionate impact of SCD on black populations and people of color saw the disease feature prominently in discussions around equity and inclusions throughout the meeting.

The gene therapy market in Sickle Cell Disease is heating up, with prime editing and CRISPR/Cas9 advances showing real promise. But concerns remain about accessibility due to high costs.

3. Advances in hematologic malignancies

Though less prominent than in recent annual meetings, the 2024 congress revealed transformative progress across many blood cancers:

Mantle Cell Lymphoma (MCL): Trials like TRIANGLE and ENRICH showed that combining ibrutinib with chemoimmunotherapy and autologous stem cell transplant (ASCT) had significant benefits, with the potential to redefine treatment protocols. TRIANGLE hit an 88% three-year failure-free survival rate – with no apparent uptick in toxicity.
Follicular Lymphoma (FL): Bispecific antibodies like mosunetuzumab are proving themselves as first-line therapies. A Phase 2 trial of subcutaneous mosunetuzumab reported high complete response rates and manageable side effects.
Multiple Myeloma (MM): Quadruplet regimens and maintenance strategies with daratumumab are carving out new, more personalized approaches, especially for frailer patients.
Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL): Advances like polatuzumab vedotin (anti-CD79b monoclonal antibody) and CD22-directed CAR-T treatments are showing promise for high-risk and heavily pretreated patients.
Classical Hodgkin Lymphoma (cHL): Nivolumab plus AVD (N+AVD) is shaking up the standard of care. Two years in, 92% of patients on N+AVD were still alive with no signs of progression, compared to 83% on brentuximab-AVD – with fewer side effects (and fewer serious side effects), too.

4. Emerging strategies: Genetics, Epigenetics, and CAR-T

Precision medicine was another hot topic. From transcriptomics to metabolism-driven insights, new therapeutic pathways are emerging across hematologic cancers. Meanwhile, the push to make CAR-T therapies safer and more effective continues, with microbiome modulation and even ketogenic diets showing potential to enhance the efficacy of CAR-T Therapy. We also saw how advances in tools like FoodSeq – food DNA sequencing– help monitor diet-induced microbiome changes, highlighting the interplay of host factors in immunotherapy outcomes.

The plenary explored how things like ketogenic diets and gut microbiome may influence how people respond to therapies like CAR-T. Hematology is taking a more holistic approach to treatment, and trying to work out why certain people respond better than others.

5. AI: the good, the bad, and the ugly

AI (once again) was everywhere this year, with delegates treated to a 360° perspective.

Breakthrough applications: Projects like GenoMed4All are leveraging Federated Learning (a machine learning approach that allows multiple centers to collaborate without sharing sensitive patient data) to solve challenges in rare hematological diseases. FL is helping to improve the accuracy of predictive models and is expected to facilitate more advanced solutions, paving the way for more personalized medicines in hematology. AI also shone in diagnostics, with AI-ECG algorithms showing promise in advancing predictive modelling.
The hope: One fascinating session talked about how AI could evolve from being a tool to becoming a partner – an AI agent that helps us solve specific problems in hematology.
The catch: Bias, data privacy, and transparency remain huge hurdles. A dedicated session – The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – aired out these concerns, underscoring the need for ethical guardrails to protect scientific integrity as AI adoption grows.

AI could evolve from being a tool to becoming a partner – an ‘AI agent’ that helps us solve specific problems in hematology. But concerns around AI bias and data privacy underscore the need for ethical guardrails as AI adoption grows.

6. DE&I: a central theme

Diversity, equity, and inclusion weren’t just buzzwords – they were baked into the meeting’s DNA. ASH’s Health Equity Studio highlighted efforts to make hematology more inclusive – from increasing representation in clinical trials and addressing language barriers, to building a more diverse workforce.

Pharma also leaned in. J&J showcased degendered protocols for LGBTQIA+ care, while companies like Sanofi and Incyte pushed for more inclusive trial recruitment. Overall, it was encouraging to see DE&I at the forefront, both in sessions and the exhibit hall.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion weren’t just buzzwords – they were baked into the meeting’s DNA. ASH demonstrated real efforts to make hematology more inclusive, from increasing representation in clinical trials to addressing language barriers.

7. The exhibit hall: science meets art

Speaking of the exhibit hall, the vibe this year was a balanced mix of hard science and human-centered storytelling; showcasing molecules, drug discovery platforms and mechanism of action, as well as artistic representations of working together and patient experiences.

While virtual reality was a popular route for communicating science – shout-out to BMS – interactive games and quizzes seemed less common, a subtle nudge for attendees to engage more proactively. Arguably, HCP engagement was best driven by functionality; GSK’s charging booths, for example, were a hit with delegates. While there wasn’t one overarching theme in the exhibits, the artistic focus on patient, caregiver and HCP experiences added a touch of humanity to the science on display. A particular highlight was AbbVie’s booth, which invited hematologists to type in key moments from their career – like graduating, seeing their first patient, overcoming challenges – then translated them into an artistic representation on the big screen. Personalization at its best.

Final takeaways

ASH 2024 had something for everyone: paradigm-shifting science, cutting-edge tech, and heartfelt efforts to make hematology more inclusive and patient-focused. Whether you came for the clinical insights, the AI debates, or just to recharge your phone (thanks, GSK), the meeting knocked it out of the park. It will be fascinating to see how these advances shape the field in 2025 and beyond!