The 53^rd annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH) will be held this Saturday, December 10, through Tuesday, December 13, in San Diego.

Over 20,000 people are expected to attend this year’s meeting, where experts from around the world will gather to discuss current research regarding the diagnosis and treatment of various blood diseases, including multiple myeloma.

The ASH meeting is one of three annual scientific meetings where important new myeloma-related research findings are usually reported.   The other two key conferences are the annual meetings of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) and the European Hematology Association (EHA).

Of these three meetings, “ASH” – as it is often called – is generally viewed as the most important for myeloma researchers, patients, and caregivers.  This is due both to the volume and the importance of the research usually presented at the meeting.

The 2011 ASH meeting looks like it will be no exception to the general rule.  This year’s meeting will host nearly 400 presentations and poster summaries of research focused on myeloma.

As in previous years, The Beacon will be covering the ASH meeting extensively.  A team of editors and writers, on site in San Diego and at The Beacon’s offices in Princeton, New Jersey, will be putting together live updates, daily summaries, and in-depth research reviews for publication during and after the meeting.

Beacon readers interested in following the meeting “as it happens” will have two options.

During each day of the meeting, members of the Beacon team will be publishing live, on-site updates about most of the major myeloma-related presentations.  These will be posted in the Beacon discussion forum in threads that have been created specifically for the ASH meeting (Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, and Day 4).

In addition, after each individual day of the meeting, The Beacon will publish a daily update summarizing the key events and findings of the day.

During the meeting and for several weeks thereafter, The Beacon also will be publishing individual news articles looking in depth at important findings presented at the ASH meeting.

Research findings presented at ASH and other scientific meetings are generally communicated in either oral presentations or poster summaries.

Oral presentations are usually done for research that is considered particularly important, either because the subject itself is important, or the results are based on substantial amounts of evidence (for example, a sizable clinical trial).

Poster research summaries are made available during specific “poster sessions,” when researchers make available their summaries in a large exhibition hall with small exhibits for each poster.

Compared to the research summarized during oral presentations, the findings in poster summaries generally are in earlier stages of development, and may involve only laboratory research or clinical trials with just a small number of patients.

Presentations related to myeloma will kick off early on the first day of the ASH meeting with an educational program looking at “Controversies And Updates In Multiple Myeloma” scheduled for 7:30 a.m.  There also will be several oral presentations related to myeloma on Sunday afternoon.

For the most part, however, the myeloma-related research presented on Saturday and Sunday will be in the form of poster summaries made available during poster sessions.

That is not the case when it comes to Monday, which will be the day with by far the largest number of oral (and poster) presentations related to myeloma.

Almost all oral presentations about potential new myeloma treatments -- including trial results for carfilzomib, pomalidomide, elotuzumab, Treanda (bendamustine), Zolinza (vorinostat) -- will be on Monday.

In addition, a poster session with a long list of myeloma-related research results is scheduled for Monday evening.

Tuesday will once again be a slower day in terms of myeloma-related research, with just a few oral presentations scheduled in the morning.

Several of the Tuesday presentations, however, will deal with key topics such as whether or not smoldering myeloma should be treated early, and the risk of secondary cancer associated with Revlimid (lenalidomide).

Additional information about the ASH meeting, including details about registration, the meeting schedule, and presentation and poster abstracts, can be found at the ASH meeting website.

Also, a preliminary review by Beacon readers of some of the ASH 2011 meeting abstracts can be found in the Beacon’s discussion forum in this thread.

Finally, Beacon coverage of myeloma-related research presented at recent scientific meetings can be found at these links: ASCO 2011 Meeting, 2011 International Myeloma Workshop, and EHA 2011 Meeting.