By: Thomas G. Martin, MD
Dear Colleagues,
This is a special year, as SOHO has surpassed the 10,000-member milestone, which is incredible considering the society is just over 10 years old. Suffice it to say, SOHO has made an indelible impact within the hematologic malignancies space worldwide.
This year, I had the pleasure of attending SOHO Brazil, chaired by the 2024-2025 SOHO President Phillip Scheinberg, MD, and was impressed by the level of engagement by the international speakers as well as the local disease experts and community providers. I encourage everyone to get involved with the global SOHO community.
As the society’s education chair for multiple myeloma (MM), I’m happy to say that this has been another productive year in the myeloma space with a new definition of high-risk MM, new data reported for treatment of smoldering MM and newly diagnosed MM (NDMM), and impressive results reported with the use of novel immunotherapies throughout the myeloma treatment spectrum (NDMM, early relapsed/refractory MM [RRMM], and late RRMM).
I expect that novel therapies including chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells and bispecific and trispecific antibodies will continue to reshape the myeloma treatment landscape over the next five to 10 years. Many of these advances will be discussed at SOHO 2025, and I encourage everyone to tune in, either in person, virtually, or on-demand.
At the European Hematology Association (EHA) Congress in Milan this summer, we heard that CAR-T therapy in the late-line setting can produce a durable remission for more than five years in a third of patients and that the new B-cell maturation antigen (BCMA)-GPRC5D-CD3 trispecific antibody from Johnson & Johnson produced an overall response rate of 100% in BCMA/GPRC5D-naïve patients.
One of my favorite (non-clinical) days at EHA involved a trip to the Barolo wine region in Italy. This region is in the Piedmont area, approximately 90 miles southeast of Milan. It is one of Italy’s most prestigious wine-producing regions, and its wines are often referred to as the “King of Wines and the Wine of Kings.”
The Barolo region is famed for its robust red wines made exclusively from the Nebbiolo grape, which thrives in the region’s calcareous clay and limestone-rich soils. Barolo wines are renowned for their powerful structure; complex aromas of rose, tar, cherry, and truffle; and their ability to age gracefully for decades. The region itself features beautiful, rolling hills filled with rows of grape vines. Like Napa Valley and Sonoma Coast in California (my other favorite wine regions), the geography is such that each hill has a unique microclimate that shapes the nuanced flavors of the Barolo.
As Sagar Lonial, MD, taught me, the Cannubi region in Barolo contains mostly southeast-facing slopes, and the wines produced there are generally spectacular. We tasted Barolo and Chardonnay wines at Cocco and Ceretto, some of which were from Cannubi, and were amazed at the depth, complexity, and smooth finish of these wines.
In summary, if you have the opportunity to visit Northern Italy, treat yourself to a side trip to Barolo. Otherwise, ask your local wine distributor if they have any bottles from the Cannubi region of Barolo; you won’t be disappointed. Next time, it’s worth talking about Sonoma Coast, Anderson Valley, and Russian River Pinot Noir vintages.
Visit the SOHO 2025 meeting news page for more coverage from the meeting.
