Jane F. Apperley, MD, FRCP, FRCPath, FMedSci

Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

London, England

I qualified in Medicine from the University of Birmingham in 1979 and completed specialist training in haematology in Birmingham, London and Cambridge. Throughout this time I developed an interest in stem cell transplantation (SCT), and by default in chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML), which was the primary indication for SCT in the 1990s. I also spent two years as a post-doctoral fellow at the Children’s Hospital in Boston, USA, training in gene transfer and therapy. I returned to the Hammersmith Hospital in 1993, given a personal chair in Haemato-Oncology in 2002, and became the Clinical Director for Clinical Haematology at the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, and the Chair of the Centre of Haematology at the Imperial College in 2003/4. My interests remain the biology and management of CML, and my group at the Imperial College has extensive experience in the use of first, second and third generation tyrosine kinase inhibitors, particularly in the areas of molecular monitoring, mechanisms of drug resistance and adverse events. I have a long-standing interest in the impact of haematological diseases and their treatment on fertility, pregnancy and foetal outcome. I have been a member of the ELN CML Working Party since the creation of the ELN in 2004 and have been involved with the ELN Consensus Guidelines since the first recommendations in 2006, initially as the ‘expert’ in SCT. I have also been a member of the UK NCRI CML study group for >20 years. Some years ago we recognised that there were issues in the management of CML peculiar to the UK because of the influence of NICE and the need for financial restraint, and under the leadership of Graeme Smith (Leeds) developed the current BCSH guidelines.