Introducing Art Flatau, AML Empowerment Lead

I have decided to try my hand at writing a regular blog.  I hope to write a post every month or so. This first post is something of an introduction.  You can read more of my background on my PEN Empowerment Lead page. I suppose I should mention that I am not a medical doctor and am not giving medical advice. I have in the past written a very occasional blog, largely summarizing conferences or meetings I have attended (Art Flatau’s Blog on Leukemia). My plan is to mostly write about new advances in AML treatment and stem cell transplants (including other cellular therapy like CAR T-cell).  However, I also want to write some about my own experience, particularly dealing with late effects. 

I am an AML and bone marrow transplant survivor. My interests are in new advances in AML treatment including stem cell transplants. As a long-term survivor (the 29th anniversary of my transplant was last month, February 2022) I am also interested in late effects. I have a few ideas currently on subjects I would like to explore further, including: 

• Stem cell transplant using a new form of T-Cell depletion to reduce Graft-versus-Host Disease: Naive T-cell depletion approach results in lower rates of chronic GVHD after transplant
• Male specific late effects, a recent review article, which I was a co-author on: Male-specific late effects in adult hematopoietic cell transplantation recipients a systematic review from the Late Effects and Quality of Life Working Committee of the Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research and Transplant Complications Working Party of the European Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation (this article coming close to longest title in science history ????) 
• Long-Term Risks Examined for Survivors of Adolescent, Young Adult Hematologic Cancers (Registration required), 

Let me know if you have topics that you are interested in. I cannot promise to write about them there are lots of interesting topics in this area that I know little about. 

Art Flatau

AML Network Manager

Art Flatau lives in Austin, Texas with his wife Gretchen. They have 2 grown children. He was diagnosed with Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) in 1992 at the age of 31, while still in graduate school at the University of Texas. Gretchen and Art’s kids were 2 and 4 at the time. He received chemotherapy (both induction chemotherapy and then consolidation). After graduating with a Ph.D. in computer science in December 1992.  He relapsed in early 1993 and then had a bone marrow transplant (BMT), his brother was a perfect match.