Dear BSBMTCT member,

We hope all is well with you.

There appears to be now some light at the end of this dark tunnel we’ve been in and most units are restoring normal activity. Vaccination has been an important part of progress and, as we write, over 38 million have now received their vaccinations in the UK.

Our BSBMTCT COVID-19 guidelines have been updated on the 18^th April and the vaccination guidelines developed by the Vaccination Sub-committee has been updated on the 27^th May. All our COVID-19 related documents are available on our website: https://bsbmtct.org/bsbmtct-and-covid/. The national multi-speciality OCTAVE Study of immune response post-COVID vaccination is now recruiting within the core and other IMPACT centres, with around 100 patients recruited to deep immunophenotyping and serology arms. Many thanks to all centres involved.

We had a very successful Scientific Day on the 12th May, Well Done to Professor Matt Collin for his excellent organisation. We would also like to say a Special Thanks to the speakers for their fantastic talks; Dr Martin Pule, Dr Reuben Benjamin, Professor Katy Rezvani and Professor Sattva Neelapu. Also Thank You to the IMPACT Teams and the Clinical Trial Committee for their study updates, and Congratulations to Jenny Byrne, Judith Marsh and Kim Orchard for their BSBMTCT Recognition Awards and to The John Goldman Abstract Prize Winners, Andrew McIntyre (UCL, for scientific award) and Graham McIlroy (Birmingham, for clinical award).

Otherwise, as always, there remains much on the ‘to do’ list…

• The next EBMT Benchmarking reports will be made available in late June, the BSBMTCT registry can support this process. In order that the BSBMTCT registry can gain access to these reports, all Programme Directors MUST send an email to Benchmarking@ebmt.org explicitly giving BSBMTCT consent to access these reports. This will only involve the Registry Office, and not the Clinical BSBMTCT executive members, who will not have access to reports from other centres.
• We have a couple of upcoming new retrospective studies approved by the BSBMTCT CTC group:
  • CTCR-1902 Impact of prior PD1/PDL1 inhibition on patients with HL undergoing T-deplete AlloTx (K Peggs)
  • CTCR-2101 HSCT for TYA with haematological malignancies in the UK (G McIlroy, A Castleton, B Carpenter)
• On 27^th May the APPG on Stem Cell Transplantation launched a report “No Patient Left Behind” following an enquiry into barriers which patients face when accessing treatment and care. The report can be found here
• Rachael Hough and Sara Ghorashian are launching the Cellular Therapy Sub-committee and a half-day inaugural virtual meeting will be held soon for those who have expressed interest for being involved in supporting the Sub-committee in its objectives, which include advancing our understanding and supporting centres in ATMP delivery.
• We continue to develop workforce, revised BMT indications, delivering accreditation remotely, modernising internal workings of the society and strengthening links with our key partners remain ongoing projects.
• Our Annual BSBMTCT Education Day will be held on November 3^rd 2021. More information to follow.

We hope that you all stay safe and well, mentally and physically – even though the restoration and recovery phases of the pandemic have come with the different, additional stresses of ‘catching-up’. The BSBMTCT will do its best to maintain high levels of support and direction for our community, and help each other deliver our treatments to our vulnerable patient population as the pandemic moves into the ‘endemic’ phase.

Our very best wishes,

John Snowden, Kim Orchard, Fiona Dignan, Deborah Richardson, Eduardo Olavarria, & Julia Lee