BSH SIG podcasts

This podcast is the first of a series of three recordings of the Lymphoma Special Interest Group (SIG) Education Session at the 2025 BSH Annual Scientific Meeting. The Lymphoma SIG is delighted to share talks from three great speakers with the wider audience. In this recording, Dr David Lewis discusses first-line treatment for mantle cell lymphoma in 2025, focusing on three main themes: 1) the emerging use of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase inhibitors (BTKis) in first-line treatment, 2) the role of autologous stem cell transplant, and 3) the clinical utility of minimal residual disease (MRD). Dr David Lewis is a Consultant Haematologist at the University Hospitals Plymouth and an Honorary Associate Professor at the University of Plymouth. He is the Chief Investigator of the ENRICH trial – a randomised, open-label study of Rituximab/Ibrutinib versus. Rituximab/Chemotherapy in older patients with untreated mantle cell lymphoma.

Dr Cathy Burton chaired the “Top Abstracts in Lymphoma” session at BSH 2025. In this episode, she shares with us the highlights from this session. Dr Burton is a Consultant Haematologist at St James’s University Hospital, Leeds, specializing in Lymphoma and Diagnostics. She is heavily engaged in translational research in lymphoma and is Chair of the Hodgkin lymphoma study group, Deputy Chair of the Lymphoma Science study group and a member of the UK Lymphoma Research Group. She has recently been involved in writing the diffuse large B cell lymphoma guidelines and is the chair of the BSH Lymphoma Special Interest Group.

In this episode, Dr Sridhar Chaganti shares with us the highlights in large B-cell lymphoma from BSH 2025, including real-world experience in the use of bispecific antibodies and the recent NICE approval of Lisocel as second line treatment. Dr Chaganti is a Consultant Haemato-oncologist at the University Hospital in Birmingham, with an interest in lymphomas, ALL, stem cell transplantation and immune effector cell therapies including CART cell therapy. He is the chair of the high-grade lymphoma study group and co-chairs the national CAR-T panel.

In this episode, Professor Graham Collins shares with us the highlights in Hodgkin lymphoma from BSH 2025. He takes us through the ECHELON-1 trial, which led to the recent NICE approval of Brentuximab-AVD as a frontline treatment option for advanced stage Hodgkin lymphoma.

Professor Graham Collins discusses the management of primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma, from initial treatment considerations to the management of relapsed disease. Professor Collins is a Consultant Haematologist and the lymphoma lead clinician at the Oxford Cancer and Haematology Centre. He has particular interests in Hodgkin and high-grade non-Hodgkin lymphoma and he chairs the national CAR-T panel for lymphoma. Please note that since the recording of this podcast in December 2024, NICE has granted approval for the use of Liso-cel as a second-line treatment option in primary mediastinal B-cell lymphoma.

Dr Sridhar Chaganti discusses the use of bispecific T-cell engagers (BITE’s) in large B-cell lymphoma. Dr Chaganti is a consultant haematologist at University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust. He has a PhD in cancer studies from the University of Birmingham. His research interest is Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) and lymphomas. His special interests are in haematological malignancies, lymphomas, stem cell transplantation and cellular therapies.

Dr Matthew Ahearne is a consultant haematologist at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust. His main clinical and research focus is on T-cell lymphomas. Dr Ahearne is Deputy Chair of the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) T-cell lymphoma working group and an NCRI Lymphoma Science sub-group member.

Dr Duncan Murray discusses mycosis fungoides and sezary syndrome. Dr Murray completed his PhD at the University of Birmingham, looking at the interaction between the immune system and malignant T cells in skin lymphoma. He finds the interaction between a "good" and "bad" T cell fascinating. He has used multiple single-cell laboratory techniques to tease apart the two populations (including V-beta antibodies, single-cell T-cell receptor (TCR) and ribonucleic acid (RNA) sequencing and mass cytometry). Skin lymphoma is an unusual disease in that key determinants of the patient's outcome sit very close together. Both anatomically and in phenotype. His current work focuses on what we can learn from high-dimensional single-cell data and the bioinformatic process to assist this.

Dr Nikesh (Nik) Chavda discusses supportive care in lymphoma. Dr Chavda is a haematology consultant at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston, with an interest in B-cell malignancies, cellular therapies and histiocytic disorders.

Dr Shirley D’Sa discusses the management of Waldenström macroglobulinaemia (WM). Dr D’Sa is a haematologist and associate professor at University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH), a busy academic centre in central London, where she also completed her specialist training in haematology. She specialises in the management of patients with Immunoglobulin M (IgM) related conditions and paraproteinaemic neuropathies. She is the clinical lead for the UCLH Centre for WM and Related Disorders and haematological lead in the Joint Neurohaematology Service alongside the neurology lead, Professor Michael Lunn, at the National Hospital for Neurology, Queen Square, London. Dr D’Sa is a co-trustee with patients and colleagues in the UK-registered charity, WMUK . She is the Chief Investigator for the Rory Morrison Registry project for WM and associated conditions, which has more than 1,200 patients registered from several centres across the UK. And a member of the UK Medical Advisory Panel of Lymphoma Action. Dr D’Sa is a CI/PI in several clinical trials in WM and cold agglutinin disease (CAD) and is a committee member of the International Workshops on WM and the BSH Guidelines group. She is a supervisor to successive research fellows in the field of Waldenström and paraproteinaemic neuropathies, as well as haematology specialist trainees and undergraduates at the University College London (UCL) Medical School.

Dr Rory McCulloch discusses the clinical management of mantle cell lymphoma (MCL), including indolent MCL, upfront management in younger patients, challenges of aggressive blastoid disease and how new therapies may shape future treatment algorithms. Dr McCulloch is a consultant haematologist at Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and recently worked as a Lymphoma Clinical Research Fellow under Professor Simon Rule at Plymouth University. He was vice-chair of the trainee-led research network HaemSTAR and is a BSH Lymphoma Special Interest Group member.

Dr Wendy Osborne discusses an approach to the management of patients with early, unfavourable Hodgkin's lymphoma, focusing on the current evidence, the role of positron emission tomography (PET) and the challenges faced by this subgroup of patients. Dr Osborne is a consultant haematologist at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. She has a specialist interest in the field of lymphoma, is a member of the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) clinical subgroups looking at high-grade Hodgkin's and T cell lymphomas, and is the chair of the BSH Lymphoma Special Interest Group.