Alexey B. Chukhlovin

Most papers published in this issue of CTT (Vol.4, No.1-2, 2015) are dedicated, as earlier, to the topics of clinical hemato-oncology. Moreover, we are glad to present both clinical and experimental articles that discuss various novel and actual aspects of transplantation and cellular therapy.

• Cancer chemotherapy in elderly patients is a topic of growing importance, due to increasingly high number of such clinical situations. Appropriate guidelines are far from completeness. Therefore, the paper by Prof. A. Zander and co-authors is applied to some key aspects of the cytostatic treatment in aged patients.
• Some special issues of combined cellular transplantion are discussed in the article by Prof. T. Ruutu and co-authors who present quite impressive data on possible interactions between transplantation of hematopoietic stem cells and solid organs from the same donor.
• Important items of hematopoietic transplantation, tyrosine kinase inhibitors and immune therapy as combined treatment in acute lymphoblastic leukemia are reviewed in the article by D. Hölzer.
• HIV infection is commonly accompanied by econdary malignant cancers. The paper by the team from St. Petersburg represents a treatment strategy for HIV-infected patients developing leukemias or lymphomas when treated with HAART.
• The section of inborn and inherited diseases contains a paper by Prof. A. Aleinikova et al., who report their data concerning the rather rare Nijmegen breakage syndrome which seems to be overrepresented in some regions of Belorussia, thus comprising a special clinical entity for potential HSCT approach.
• The issues of laboratory markers in hematopoietic stem cell transplantation are addressed in a paper presented by Moiseev and co-authors suggesting a potential value of the pre-transplant plasma VEGF for predicting severe complications of HSCT and early relapse in the patients.
• Pre-clinical models of cell transplantation are always highly discussed among clinicians. The article presented by the team from St. Petersburg I. Pavlov Medical University and the Institute of Cytology highlights some comparative effects of mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) and bone marrow mononuclears upon the course and outcomes in experimental myocardial infarction. Local MSC injection seems to be a more favorable option.
• A short report by Professor R. Hehlmann bears on some promising ways to overcome blast crisis in chronic myeloid leukemia, with regard to of some recently studied therapeutic schedules and novel experimental treatment approaches.
• A report presented by Professor J. Kuball concerns current prospectives for cord blood stem cells, as a possible rescue in cases of HIV-associated leukemia, due to some favorable properties of this stem cell source.
• Special attention should be given to the future of cell engineering, especially in the area of human inducible polypotent stem cells. The latter are studied by a team from Oslo, Norway, aiming for creation of functional cartilage structures resembling the normal ones.