After 6.5 years of joint work, HARMONY reaped the benefits of building a research infrastructure with the best brains of European blood cancer research. Through a wide variety of collaborative activities, HARMONY has truly demonstrated the power of Big Data to improve the treatment of HMs. By the end of June 2023, we have identified data from more than 160,00 patients with blood cancer and have transferred almost 100,000 datasets into the platform in ALL, AML, CLL, MDS, MM and NHL from both public and private providers across the EU.
In HARMONY research projects, scientists and physicians have teamed up to advance the understanding of HMs. For instance, in AML, our researchers have identified gene combinations that are associated with prognosis in two subtypes of this condition, have presented new insights into the prognosis of these patients and found factors that contribute to the clinical outcome of AML patients treated prior to the approval of novel drugs.
Regarding ALL, they identified a low-risk subgroup of ALL that could be considered for treatment reduction and found a genetic marker for poor treatment response in adults with a subtype of ALL.
In MM a new revision of the ISS has been published. In addition to biomedical research projects, they are running HTA projects and organizing multi-stakeholder activities, including the HARMONY Patient Cluster.
In MDS, a retrospective study with patients with lenalidomide discontinuation has been performed, and a sex-informed approach to improve the personalised decision-making process as well as a Real-World Validation of Molecular IPSS for MDS are under way.
On CLL, a study has shown how recurrent gene mutations originates a different impact in patient’s prognosis.
In addition, HARMONY has developed a COS for each of the HMs studied as well as an overarching COS for all HMs. This COS may improve the interpretation and comparability of clinical trials and form the basis for future improvements in patient management.
More than 100 organizations from 18 European countries already share our mission to personalize treatments for blood cancer patients. Spreading and exchanging knowledge have been boosted by the participation in a variety of international conferences and events (
https://www.harmony-alliance.eu/en/meet-us(s’ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)) to increase global awareness of HARMONY’s achievements and its ongoing work, and that knowledge of HARMONY’s work reaches out an international audience.
As a result of the strong commitment and drive of the multi-stakeholder partners and members involved in HARMONY, and to ensure the continuity of the work, a non-profit research foundation is being established. This foundation will build upon the achievements of HARMONY and bring hematology research and patient care to the next level.
