SOHO Presents Named Awards at Twelfth Annual Meeting

Live from Houston, Texas, the Society of Hematologic Oncology (SOHO) presented two named awards during the plenary sessions at the Twelfth Annual Meeting on September 4-7.

Emil J Freireich Distinguished Pioneer Award

Ching-Hon Pui, MD, Co-Leader of the Hematological Malignancies Program at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, received the Emil J Freireich Distinguished Pioneer Award during the first plenary session on September 4. The award recognizes SOHO members who have advanced the society’s mission by promoting “worldwide research, education, prevention, clinical studies, and optimal patient care in all aspects of hematologic malignancies and related disorders,” according to SOHO’s website.

After receiving the award, Dr. Pui, who specializes in pediatric acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), gave the plenary talk on precision treatment for childhood ALL. The award was introduced by Hagop Kantarjian, MD, Session Chair, Professor, and Chair of the Department of Leukemia at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center.

“Dr. Pui is admired by many of us and is a hero to many of us. He is very well known for his work in childhood ALL and has made many discoveries which have advanced the cure rate in childhood ALL,” said Dr. Kantarjian. Dr. Pui is also credited with organizing research in China and bringing essential medications to the country.

“It is a great privilege to be here to honor my hero,” Dr Pui said. “Dr. Freireich was a trailblazer in our field and developed pioneering work which we are still using today as a guide to help manage our patients.”

Emil J. Freireich, MD, was the first person to develop curative regimens for adult and pediatric ALL, Dr. Kantarjian noted. He also designed apheresis machines used to separate platelets.

Michael J. Keating Outstanding Achievement Award

John Seymour, MBBS, FRACP, PhD, Director of the Hematology Department at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and the Royal Melbourne Hospital, received the Michael J. Keating Outstanding Achievement Award at the second plenary session on September 5 for his contributions to the field of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).

“Our recipient is very appropriate for this award, particularly because he was brought to the MD Anderson Cancer Center in 1986 from Australia by Dr. Keating,” said session chair Susan O’Brien, MD, of UCI Health.

Dr. O’Brien described Dr. Keating as a “pioneer in the treatment of CLL” and an “excellent physician.” He also began the CLL global foundation, a charitable foundation funding CLL research.

“It’s a huge privilege and one of the greatest honors of my career to receive an award named after Michael Keating, a giant in the field of CLL and hematologic research,” Dr. Seymour said before accepting the award.

Following the award, Dr. Seymour gave the plenary talk on BCL2 inhibition in CLL and described the journey to understanding apoptosis.

“When I first met Michael when I entered medical school, the evasion of apoptosis as a mechanism of leukemogenesis was not recognized,” he explained. “Now, it’s seen as standard routine. We are now able to succinctly and directly target that therapeutically, and CLL is the paradigm that does it most successfully.”