Shows
HaemlineWar of the Cords: Optimising Graft-versus-Leukaemia in Double Cord Blood TransplantationIn double cord blood transplantation, one unit engrafts and the other is rejected—but the losing unit might be doing more than previously imagined. A 2025 Blood Advances study from the Eurocord–EBMT registry reveals how the immunological battle between cord units can be redirected against leukaemia, particularly when the patient and losing unit share the right HLA mismatches. In this episode, we unpack the elegant biology behind this unintended vaccine effect, explore the surprising lack of excess GVHD, and consider what these findings mean for unit selection in high-risk disease. Could the losing graft be the key to preventing rela...
2025-08-0415 minHaemlineDeep Dive: Paediatric/AYA AML Transplant Decisions in the Molecular EraWhich children and young adults with acute myeloid leukaemia should receive transplant in first remission? This episode explores a landmark 2025 analysis from the Children's Oncology Group that revisits this longstanding question through a contemporary molecular lens.Huang and colleagues, publishing in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, analysed outcomes for over 1,400 patients from the AAML0531 and AAML1031 trials—studies that enrolled patients up to age 29. By retrospectively applying contemporary molecular risk criteria from the current AAML1831 trial, including newly recognised adverse genetic lesions and measurable residual disease thresholds, they revealed striking patterns in transplant benefit across redefined risk gr...
2025-07-2628 minHaemlineRapid Review: Paediatric/AYA AML Transplant Decisions in the Molecular EraWhich children and young adults with acute myeloid leukaemia should receive transplant in first remission? In this Rapid Review, we explore a landmark analysis by Huang et al., published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology in April 2025. Reclassifying over 1,400 patients using AAML1831 criteria, the study offers a contemporary perspective on who gains from transplant—and who doesn't. The results are compelling: disease-free survival doubles for most molecularly defined high-risk patients, while those with monosomy 7 or 5 continue to fare poorly despite transplant. This three-minute overview highlights key findings and clinical implications, including donor timing, MRD integration, and the future role of...
2025-07-2605 minHaemlineFirst-Line Ven/Aza/Revumenib for AML?Could targeting the menin–KMT2A axis up front improve outcomes in older adults with NPM1-mutated or KMT2A-rearranged AML? In this episode, we examine new phase I data from Zeidner and colleagues, published in The Journal of Clinical Oncology in June 2025, investigating revumenib in combination with azacitidine and venetoclax for newly diagnosed patients ineligible for intensive therapy.We explore the shared biological mechanism linking these two subtypes, the rationale for adding menin inhibition to ven/aza, and early results—including high remission rates, MRD nuances, and challenges around myelosuppression and treatment delays.How do t...
2025-07-2012 minHaemlineTargeting Menin in Acute Leukaemia: AUGMENT-101 ResultsBuilding on our earlier Biology Tangent episode on menin inhibition, this clinical deep-dive explores the pivotal AUGMENT-101 trial results that led to FDA approval of revumenib — the first licensed menin inhibitor for acute leukaemias. Revumenib has shown meaningful activity in relapsed or refractory KMT2A-rearranged and NPM1-mutated acute leukaemias, illustrating how targeting transcriptional dependencies can restore differentiation, even in heavily pretreated patients. We examine key efficacy data, including CR/CRh rates of 23 percent — exceeding historical expectations — with nearly 40 percent of responders proceeding to transplant. The episode also explores biomarkers of response, such as IDH co-mutations; the expected safety profil...
2025-07-2017 minHaemlineMechanism to Medicine: Menin as ModelHow does understanding normal blood cell development lead to breakthrough cancer therapies? This Biology Tangent episode explores the science behind menin inhibitors - therapies that act across age groups, lineages, and genetic subtypes by targeting shared developmental circuitry. We examine why both KMT2A-rearranged and NPM1-mutated leukaemias depend on this unexpected vulnerability, and how disrupting a single protein can unlock differentiation across multiple cancer types. From chromatin regulation to differentiation syndrome, we trace the biological logic that makes this approach so compelling. Beyond the elegant science, it’s a story about uncovering common ground between seemingly distinct cancers wi...
2025-07-1911 minHaemlineBonus Episode: “What analyser does your lab use and why?” (a fair FRCPath question)A deeper dive for haematology trainees and biomedical scientists. This bonus episode explores the technology behind specific modern full blood count analysers—including Sysmex, Beckman Coulter, Abbott, Siemens, and Roche—and why analyser choice matters clinically, diagnostically, and even in exams.Episode type: Core Haematology
2025-07-1716 minHaemlineReticulocytes, CHr, and IRF: The Most Useful Tests You’re Not Using?The 2am anaemia admission. The four-year-old who’s "a bit tired" with a normal Hb and MCV. The anaemic dialysis patient with a mildly raised ferritin. In each case, reticulocyte parameters could change your clinical decision-making. Join us to explore how modern analysers reveal not just red cell quantity but quality, why CHr outperforms ferritin in detecting early iron deficiency, and how IRF predicts marrow recovery before counts improve. Depending on where you work, all of these tests may already be at your fingertips. It’s time to start using them.
2025-07-1415 min
HaemlineOf Clumps and Counts: Understanding Platelet ParametersPlatelets are minuscule, but they cause outsized trouble in the lab and the clinic. From EDTA clumping to cryoglobulin confusion, from giant platelets that escape detection to inherited disorders masquerading as ITP, we explore the curious twists behind every platelet parameter.Join us for a tour of the quirks and pitfalls of platelet counting, why the MPV misleads more than it helps, and how the immature platelet fraction might tell us something useful, if we know how to interpret it.In a world of high-tech analysers and fluorescent RNA staining, sometimes the blood film still...
2025-07-1219 min
HaemlineReading Between the Cells: Making Sense of WBC DifferentialsFull blood counts: We all request thousands and glance at them every day. If there’s one test worth understanding inside out, it’s this one.This episode focuses on white cells: how modern analysers generate a differential count, why they throw up so many flags, and when you should pick up the phone.Learn how to interpret automated white cell differentials, when to insist on a blood film, and why a bit of technological insight might save you from the missed diagnosis—or the 3am emergency that wasn’t.By the end, you’ll r...
2025-07-0825 min
HaemlineHaemline TrailerHaemline TrailerWelcome to Haemline, your companion for bite-sized haematology learning on the go. Whether you're commuting, doing the washing up, or simply too exhausted after a long shift to read anything, we aim to deliver focused haematology education to complement the excellent podcast resources already available.Created by practising UK haematologists, our scripts are carefully crafted to be conversational yet compact - the sort of resource we wish we'd had when starting out.Haemline aims to offer something for everyone. Episodes fall into four categories.General Interest...
2025-07-0502 min
HaemlineUnderstanding RBC Parameters: Patterns, Pitfalls, and Clinical PearlsRed cells: they're not just bags of haemoglobin.In this episode of Haemline, we explore the diagnostic goldmine hiding in those RBC parameters you've possibly been scrolling past. Learn how to interpret red cell count, MCV, RDW, MCH, and MCHC in context—and why their relationships often matter more than the numbers alone.Featuring: cold agglutinins behaving badly, the rule of threes, and why your biomedical scientist deserves more credit.Through real clinical cases, we explore how to disentangle artefact from biology, avoid classic traps, and spot when “normal” values are anything but. Learn...
2025-07-0336 min
HaemlineDead Cells Tell Tales: How Pre-Analytical Pitfalls Shape the FBCWelcome back to Haemline. This is episode two in our six-part series on the full blood count. You order it every day. You trust it—perhaps too much. You ignore parameters that might actually be useful. By the end of this series, we hope you'll never look at an FBC the same way again.In today's episode, "Dead Cells Tell Tales: How Pre-Analytical Pitfalls Shape the FBC," we'll explore how the journey from vein to laboratory shapes those numbers you rely on to guide your clinical decisions. Seventy percent of laboratory errors occur before analysis be...
2025-07-0111 min
HaemlineFrom Haemocytometers to AI: The FBC, ExplainedWelcome to the first episode of Haemline, your companion for haematology learning on-the-go. Today marks the beginning of our six-part series on the full blood count – that ubiquitous test we order countless times each day. Over the coming episodes, we'll explore everything from pre-analytical pitfalls to the clinical insights hidden within those parameters you often ignore.In this first episode, "From Haemocytometers to AI: The FBC, Explained," we'll trace the evolution of blood counting from tedious manual methods to today's sophisticated analysers. We'll demystify how modern instruments actually count and characterise millions of cells in mi...
2025-07-0120 min