Conference explores diagnostic accuracy and its implications for the delivery of personalised medicine

Posted on 30 June 2014

A major conference co-organised by the University of York at the Leeds Royal Armouries will explore the accuracy and robustness of diagnosis for haematological cancers.

The Past, Present and Future of Leukaemia and Lymphoma Diagnosis anniversary event marks 21 years since the inception of the Haematological Malignancy Diagnostic Service (HMDS), a specialist haematopathology laboratory providing an integrated diagnostic service for Yorkshire and Humberside. HMDS also receives samples from across the UK, and acts as a diagnostic reference centre for many national and international clinical trials. The last two decades have witnessed major change in technology and therapeutics as well as an increasing focus on the delivery of personalised medicine. Conference sessions will cover the progress in diagnostics and examine where new knowledge about the biology of these disorders may take us in the future.

Professor Andrew Jack, Chair of Haemato-Oncology at York and current Director of HMDS, said: “The Haematological Malignancy Diagnostic Service has been at the forefront of the development of new diagnostic techniques over the past 21 years. We are now at the stage where personalised medicine is becoming a reality, and HMDS is leading many of the developments in this area.”

The conference features contributions from:

Archie Prentice, President of the Royal College of Pathologists

George Vassiliou, Lead of the Haematological Cancer Genetics Group at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

Jude Fitzgibbon, Professor of Personalised Medicine at the Barts Cancer Institute

Gordon Cook, President of the British Society of Blood & Marrow Transplantation

Peter Campbell, Head of the Cancer Genetics and Genomics Group Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute & Joint Head of the Cancer Genome Project

Brian Roberts, the first Haematology Consultant appointed in the region

Simon Crouch, Senior Research Fellow in Biostatistics in the University’s Epidemiology & Cancer Statistics Group

As well as staff from HMDS.

The event has been approved by the Royal College of Pathologists for 4 CPD credits.

Enquiries to enquiries@hmds.info or to register please follow the link: http://www.hmds.info/Content/Training/Training.aspx

Further information:

For more information on the Haematological Malignancy Diagnostic Service, please visit: www.hmds.info/
For more information on the Epidemiology & Cancer Statistics Group, please visit: www.york.ac.uk/healthsciences/research/cancer-cardio/ecsg/