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I arrived at ASH on Friday afternoon and as we say, I hit the ground running – making it to the Satellite session on Dasatinib on the Friday afternoon. These symposiums are not actually considered as “part” of ASH. Satellite symposiums are supported by corporate sponsorship, but quite informative and educational none-the-less. For the most part I find these sessions helpful in that they highlight the key messages of the various presentations. The session I attended was presented by BMS and I have to say “Hats off” to a job well done by BMS. The information presented was fair, balance, fact based and interesting. Considering my 18 years of experience in the marketing of radiological/cardiological Interventional devises and drugs, this is an interesting comment for me to be making. Usually industry does not sponsor these things unless there is a good ROI. Here the ROI was clearly the effort on presenting very “un-biased” information. Many people could hardly tell if they were in a session being sponsored by BMS or Novartis. There was good information presented on Gleevec, Nilotinib and Dasatinib.

Please go to the file with the highlights from the satellite symposium.

Friday night was a late night getting some work done.

While at ASH I was writing a final term paper for bioethics and studying for a final exam in epistemology….

Now, just a word on epistemology and you may wonder how it fits in with ASH. We attended Dr. Joseph Radich’s presentation on Blast Crisis and AP in CML. While much has been discovered about CML and thankfully, not many of us progress to AP or BC, it was a bit scary to hear how complex these phases of the disease are. Conversely Epistemology is the study of knowledge and how we learn, or how we know what we know. Here is the link back to ASH and this presentation in particular. Dr. Radich presented us with a slide titled:

“Ruminating about Blast Crisis”

“Because as we know, there are KNOWN KNOWNS; there are things we know we know.

We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know.

But there are also UNKNOWN UNKNOWNS – the ones we don’t know we don’t know”

Donald Rumsfeld

By the way, Jan tells me that Rumsfeld in German means Exploding fields, hmm…

Individual Highlights:

Inside Story 2

Inside Story 3

Inside Story 4

Inside Story 5

Inside Story 6

Inside Story 7

Last Story 8

Special Interest Articles:

• Add a highlight or your point of interest here.

• Add a highlight or your point of interest here.

• Add a highlight or your point of interest here.

Saturday – Epistemology and ASH? - Yes!

/ 1-866-912-7575

Friday – Hitting the ground running

Newsletter December 2007

Volume 1, Issue 1

Ramblings from ASH

Saturday evening we sipped a beer and browsed the posters – ahh - beer makes the learning process so much easier, and as someone quite famous once said - Beer is proof that God loves us. -- Ben Franklin

By Sunday, I was pretty sure my feet would probably have to be amputated – YEOW! So much walking!! The Atlanta congress centre is amazingly big. Thanks to Giora who was willing to wait in the incredibly long line at Starbucks. Note to ASH organizers – make sure the Starbucks on site has more than just one coffee barista working. Jan and I like our Caffe Latte with low fat milk, Giora goes for the full gusto! However, by mid afternoon I was looking forward to a – are you ready for it? Here’s my order -“Double shot, no water, tzao chai latte with soy – tall (or as we say here in Montreal, Mezzo)” Consequently I only gave Giora the order for the Caffe Latte. At the Starbucks in Montreal near Concordia University, I have taught them that a Latte made with low fat milk is a “skinny Latte”, sorry Java U. That’s our coffee story. It was nice having coffee outside in the nice warm weather, Atlanta was unseasonably warm….

Sunday during the day I met with our favorite Cord Blood crusader, Steve Sprague. He recently celebrated his 10th anniversary and he is looking fine! Hard to imagine that there is an 11 year old girl walking around New York City, completely oblivious to the fact that her parents kind gesture of donating her umbilical cord blood saved the life of this very fine man. We did a quick tour of the exhibits; I sampled frozen yoghurt, pumpkin spice latté, and oatmeal raisin cookies, but I was really looking for the popcorn!!

Sunday around noontime we had a private meeting with Dr. Druker. It was so nice to see him again and the ritual photo op. Jan and Giora had not met him, although they had exchanged emails.

Sunday night I had the lovely pleasure of meeting Dr. S. Couben from Halifax. What a very nice gentleman. I look forward to visiting with him in Halifax. I also met with Susan Kamel Reid who is just a supper person. We spoke about her latest in PCR and also quite a bit about Shopping – she is a fan of Williams Sonoma too!!!!

Monday morning started very early with some important meetings and then sessions at the conference centre. Giora was wondering when he would get a chance to sleep in. By Monday, my feet were really killing me and my backpack was just about breaking at the seams from all the information.

After the CML sessions I headed back to the posters then over to the press area where we had a nice meeting with Erin and Pat from the Max Foundation. Then we were off to the Aquarium and the ASH BASH. I have some lovely pictures of the fish and Jan with whale sharks swimming over his head. I wanted to jump into my SCUBA gear and go for a swim in the tropical pool with the colorful fishes! The Atlanta Aquarium is amazing…

Poster, Beer and Ben Franklin…

Monday – Rubbing Fins with the Fishes…

Dr. Druker and Steven Sprague

“From Left to right: Cheryl-Anne, Dr. Druker, Giora and Jan.”

Ramblings from ASH

Page 2 of 3

Tuesday morning and the CML sessions started at 7:30 AM. Giora was already on his way to the airport catching a flight back to New York and meeting up with his wife Sigi to head home to Israel. The CML Sessions were quite exciting. Jan and I went off to a pre arranged meeting with ASH organizers. We are already talking about next year. It will be ASH’s’ 50th anniversary. We are hoping we can make ASH accessible to more patients – stay tuned…

Jan and I shared hugs and kisses and wished each other safe journeys back home – Jan off to Munich and I back home to Montreal - A term paper to submit and a final exam to go to on December 13th

Something to be grateful for

One thing we all know for sure, if there is one thing to be grateful about for having this disease it would be this. that through this we have met some very kind, generous and wonderful people in the world. We are all so very grateful.

Falling asleep in strange hotel rooms can be difficult and the over stimulation from so much information can make it very difficult to count sheep. I brought my IPOD with me and loaded it up with some of my favorite music.

Here are my picks to travel, unwind and think about ASH by. Google some of them and see if you can find them on the Internet.

To get you ready for those early morning meetings, after some quiet mindful meditations, in between the toothbrush and the coffee, try listening to this –

“I’ve Seen All Good People” – YES

“I can’t Get Next to You” – Annie Lennox

“Dancing in the Dark” – Bruce Springsteen

“Apple Scruffs” – George Harrison

“I Dig Rock and Roll Music” – Peter, Paul and Mary (am I dating myself yet?)

“Mississippi Queen” – Mountain

“Use Me” – Bill Withers

“Miss Sarajevo” – U2 Live

Getting ready for posters, beer or dinner? Try these tunes…

“La Vie En Rose” – Edith Piaff

“Sunshine of your Love” – Cream

“How to Save a Life” – The Fray

“What if it all Means Something” – Chantal Kreviazuk

“I Just Want to Make Music” & “Dream No.2” – Ken Tobias

“Talking ‘Bout a Revolution” – Tracy Chapman

“Stoned Love” – The Supremes

“Come to Me” - Koop

“If I were your Woman” – Gladys Knight and the Pips

Trying to Fall Asleep – get ready for some serious zzz’s with these…

“Keep Breathing” – Ingrid Michaelson

“River” - Sara McClachlan

“Right Here Waiting” – Donny Osmond!!!

“Over the Rainbow” – Eva Cassidy

“Nessum Dorma” – Luciano Pavrotti

“Moon River” – Audrey Hepburn

Music to travel to ASH by

The Tuesday Morning Wind up

Dr. Neil Shah (at Podium) and Dr. Charles Sawyer (standing)

“Giora, Cheryl-Anne and Jan across the street under the Novartis sign - It was a very big sign!

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Ramblings from ASH

Our Regular Newsletter

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Music of the Season

We’re on the Web!

See us at:



Phone:

1-866-912-7575

E-Mail:

info@

Some Holiday Music always makes traveling a bit easier, on the plane and at the airport…

“In the Bleak Mid Winter” – Sarah McLachlan

“Winter Wonderland” – The Eurythmics

“Hazy Shade of Winter” – The Bangles

“Comfort and Joy” – Simon and Garfunkle

“O Holy Night” – Michael Crawford

“The Prayer” – Andrea Boccelli and Celine Dion

“New Years Eve” – Harry Connick Jr.

“Same Old Lang Syne” – Dan Fogelberg

“Where are you Christmas” – Faith Hill

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Our regular newsletter will be available in the early part of the New Year and will have some more of the information from the ASH sessions.

Stay Tuned!

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