News

The first large EQA sample distribution from the ESLHO lab! Two weeks ago ESLHO arranged the aliquoting and distribution for the wet cases of the EuroClonality IG/TR clonality assessment EQA scheme 2024. By now the samples also arrived to the labs of our participants in South Africa, China and India. This was a colorful event that for sure we will repeat in the future!

This week the 1st EuroFlow Summer school takes place in Salamanca, Spain. The EuroFlow Summer School is designed to train already experienced clinical flow cytometrists, and introduce them to EuroFlow procedures, analysis of the EuroFlow panels and use of its associated databases in InfinicytTM. This 1st EuroFlow Summer school focusses on the analysis and interpretation of the EuroFlow Screening tubes: ALOT, LST, SST, PCST and PIDOT. Each tube is introduced individually with the rationale behind the choice of markers per panel, and in-depth review of each population to be identified in normal and pathological samples, as well as per sample type. In addition to manual analysis, automated gating and interpretation of the analysis will be presented and trained.

At the EHA congress, which took place last week in Madrid, the founders of EuroFlow, Prof.dr. Alberto Orfao and Prof.dr. Jacques van Dongen received a special Certificate of Appreciation.

The EHA 2024 congress in Madrid has started! As usual, ESLHO, as specialized working group of the EHA, is present in the Collaboration Plaza in Hall 9. Pass by to learn about our consortia EuroClonality, EuroFlow and EuroMRD, our symposium on Multi-omics approaches for diagnosis and monitoring of hematological malignancies in November 2024, or to score one of our educational books!

Huge congratulations to the EuroMRD Consortium with two new publications in the field of minimal residual disease. Both benchmark manuscripts are published in the leading journal Leukemia. The first, titled ‘Analysis of measurable residual disease by IG/TR gene rearrangements: QA and updated EuroMRD guidelines’, having Vincent van der Velden as first author, describes the design and analysis of our quality assessment scheme. It reports EuroMRD’s revised data interpretation guidelines, which are based on experiences build up over the last 20 years.

The second publication, ‘The gray area of RQ-PCR-based measurable residual disease: subdividing the positive, below quantitative range (PBQR) category’, first author Michaela Kotrova, is a very useful addition to the first publication and tightens the interpretation guidelines for PBQR results and complements RQ-PCR with other methods that may overcome the limitations of PBQR results, potentially leading to a better choice of treatment.

Interested to read more? The publications have free access, you can find them in our List of Publications.