Alternating between Europe and the US, this conference, held every year under the auspices of the European School of Haematology and the International Chronic Myeloid Leukaemia Foundation, is the world's most important convention in its field. The most recent one was held in September at the Bordeaux Convention Centre.

The Bordeaux convention will mark the tenth anniversary of the presentation of the first clinical results of imatinib by Brian Druker at the 1999 convention, also organised in the Aquitaine region, by professor Josy Reiffers. The meeting will bring together a hundred of the world's leading CML researchers and 450-500 participants from around the world specialised in this field.

Chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) serves as a model in for other blood diseases and for cancer research. CML is caused by the excessive production of white globules and an abnormality due to the fusion of two chromosomes in stem cells and bone marrow. This can be traced to a small abnormal chromosome called the "Philadelphia chromosome" created by the combination of a gene on chromosome 9, called ABL, and a gene on chromosome 22, named BCR to form another gene, BCR-ABL, that is present only in bone marrow and blood cells, and produces an abnormal enzyme, tyrosine kinase. There are now special revolutionary treatments to inhibit tyrosine kinase. These have also led to the development of other targeted therapies. CML continues to be the object of intensive research in order to understand all the nuances of these new treatments and continue to serve as a reference for cancer research.

After Bordeaux, it will be Washington D.C.'s turn to host the conference in 2010.