The 19^th Congress of Asia Pacific Blood and Marrow Transplantation Group (APBMT) was held from Oct.17 to 19, 2014. Nearly 1,000 delegates (approximately 200 from overseas including more than 20 countries and regions) attended this congress which was organized by APBMT, and co-organized by Zhejiang University as well as National Natural Science Foundation of China. Nineteen experts from international organizations including European Bone and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT), American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT) and Worldwide Network for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (WBMT) were invited to give plenary presentations. In addition, 42 experts presented in six scientific sessions and one nurse session. Three hundred and fifty abstracts were submitted, from which 49 were chosen to be presented orally and 200 in posters. During the Congress, the Executive Board Meeting, Business Meeting and eleven Work Meetings of APBMT Group also took place to arrange the future programs and plans.
The Summit Forum of leading international organizations engaged in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation was for the first time held during this Congress. Associate Executive Director of ASBMT (Mr. Robert Krawisz), President of EBMT (Prof. Mohamad Mohty), President of WBMT (Prof. Yoshihisa Kodera), Chairmen of APBMT (Prof. Shinichiro Okamoto) had broad discussion regarding the current status and future development of transplantation as well as international cooperation. Being the most important organization involved in stem cell transplantation in Asia Pacific Region, APBMT Group held cooperation symposium with ASBMT and EBMT by which exhibited the current status and development in the recent years and established foundations for the future collaboration and communication.
Approved by Ministry of Education, this Congress was organized by Zhejiang University and chaired by Prof. He Huang, who is the Vice Dean of Medical School, as well as the Director of Bone Marrow Transplantation Center of the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University. they just published online “T-cell-replete haplo-identical HSCT with low-dose anti-T-lymphocyte globulin compared with matched sibling HSCT and unrelated HSCT” in the journal of BLOOD, aiming at establishing a novel strategy for haplo-identical donor to be the first choice of surrogate donors and this paper was recommended by the Faculty of 1000 (F1000).
Prof. He Huang chaired the 10^th APBMT Congress in Hangzhou as early as 2005 and nine years afterwards it returned. This time, more than 20 delegates from China presented their tremendous achievements in the stem cell transplantation field.