Global Hematology Experts Reflect on Key Takeaways From the EHA 2025 Congress

From June 12 to June 15, hematology experts from around the world came together in Milan, Italy, for the European Hematology Association (EHA) 2025 Congress, marking the meeting's 30th anniversary. These experts discussed the latest updates and most pressing issues in the field during the meeting.

Throughout the meeting, The American Journal of Managed Care® spoke with experts about their biggest takeaways:

• Marina Kremyanskaya, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
• Lorna Warwick, CEO of the Lymphoma Coalition
• Xavier Leleu, MD, PhD, head of the Department of Haematology and the Myeloma Clinic at Hôpital La Mileterie, in Poitiers, France
• Ashley Yocum, PhD, executive research strategy lead of the Beat AML [acute myeloid leukemia] Master Trial at the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society
• Matthew Matasar, MD, chief of blood disorders at Rutgers Cancer Institute
• Adela Perolla, MD, PhD, a hematologist at the University Hospital Center "Mother Teresa" in Tirana, Albania

This transcript was lightly edited for clarity; narration and captions were generated by AI.

Transcript

Narration: The European Hematology Association, or EHA, 2025 Congress convened this past week from June 12 to June 15 in Milan, Italy. To gain deeper insight into this year's meeting, The American Journal of Managed Care® asked 6 experts to share their biggest takeaways. Their responses ranged from major clinical trial updates to the emphasis on patient advocacy and global equity in hematology care.

Now, hear directly from the experts themselves as they reflect on the key themes and standout moments from the EHA 2025 Congress.

What was your biggest takeaway from this year's EHA Congress?

Kremyanskaya: It's exciting, there [are] a lot of new developments, and there [were] a lot of updates on ongoing clinical trials that were presented, specifically in the MPN {myeloproliferative neoplasms] space that I'm interested in.

I think it's interesting to see updates on drugs that have been in clinical development now for a number of years and hopefully will eventually get to clinics. Some of the other drugs have been presented previously, but at EHA this year, we get to hear the updates on the results.

Warwick: What I really love about EHA as an entity and how they work this congress is [that] they are so good at including patient advocacy at the core. They realize that patient advocates and patient organizations contribute much to health care systems, to supporting patients, and to making sure they live their best lives.

For EHA, they embed patient advocates in sessions. Scientific, educational, or if it's even just a patient advocacy session, they're always focused on, how do we bring that voice forward and make sure that we're not only focused on the clinical aspects and medical aspects of a new therapy, or different ways to administer care, but what is that actually like for the patient? Which, I think is just a fabulous model that others should be replicating.

Leleu: Actually, I think [the phase 3] IRAKLIA [trial] is the one. It's [isatuximab] not a new drug, but it's gonna make so much difference in the departments, in the unit. Units are in great trouble. I don't know [about] the US, because I don't know much [about] the US, but in Europe, 100% of the hematology departments are in great difficulties.

Honestly, it's not a new drug, it's not like a genius immunotherapy we just came up with that's gonna cure myeloma. Yes, it's not, I agree. But, in real life, in my daily routine practice, it's gonna make so much difference. In the end, I think it's fair [to say] that IRAKLIA could be the most important [game-changing] data in the department, in the real life of any physician, any nurse, any nurse practitioner, any patient worldwide.

Yocum: This year's EHA, from all the AML talks that have been presented today, I really feel that everyone is looking to see what is the best treatment for patients, not just to get a CR [complete response], but also for the quality of life. This is really important, especially for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, when we want to make sure that every day that you have with your disease is one worth living.

It's been great to hear about the studies that have been presented with oral azacitidine (AZA), and how these studies are just as efficacious as those [with] traditional AZA administration. I'm really excited to see how we can get all of these treatments into oral therapies so that [they] can best suit patients, so that they can live their best lives.

Matasar: I would say that my biggest takeaway from EHA is the tremendous breadth of science being presented. It's always inspirational as a clinical investigator to come to EHA and to see the tremendous variety [of] innovation [and] creativity being brought to bear across the range of blood disorders and blood cancers.

Perolla: I think that advances in hematology are performed in huge steps. Each year I come to EHA, each year I knew something that I didn't [know] before. I am from Albania, and we are a low-middle income country, and not every product is in our country.

But if we knew, and if we know, and we raise our knowledge, we can better advocate and, also, we can make possible that the advancements in hematology that my colleague and I are learning in this EHA Congress [be] put in our country. [We can also make] possible that Albania can [perform] the bone marrow transplantation, because we don't do it [at] the moment. Why not [use] CAR [cancer antigen receptor] T-cell [therapy] and use also these new antibodies and treatments and discoveries made day after day? Why not?