Christine Duncan, MD Sickle cell disease (SCD) affects as many
as 100,000 Americans, and a comprehensive understanding of SCD
is essential for pediatric and adult hematologists. This common
disease will be explored in depth in an Education Program
Session today at 7:30 a.m. and again at 2:00 p.m. in rooms
393-396 of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. The session
is designed for all hematologists who treat patients with sickle
cell syndromes, including general adult and pediatric
hematologists and those who practice in tertiary care centers.
Gene therapy offers promise as a curative therapy for SCD but is
not yet a reality. Stem cell transplantation has successfully
cured many severely affected patients, but it is limited by the
availability of donors and by transplant-related toxicity. As a
result, we are still searching for effective and tolerable
alternative therapies for this common disease. In today’s
session, Drs. Kenneth Ataga of the University of North Carolina
and Russell Ware of St. Jude Childre