Program notes — ASH 2026¶

Internal pre-meeting working file. Tracks, plenary preview, expected LBAs, watch list, key dates. Status: ~7 months pre-meeting (as of May 11, 2026). Nearly everything below is speculative; flagged inline.

Key dates¶

Date	Event	Notes
May 11, 2026	Scientific Workshops application deadline	11:59 PM PT — closes today
May 27, 2026	Friday Satellite Symposia application deadline	11:59 PM PT
Jun 2, 2026	Abstract submissions open
Aug 4, 2026	Abstract submission deadline	11:59 PM PT — regular abstracts
Jul 22, 2026	ASH member registration + housing opens	11:00 AM ET
Aug 12, 2026	Non-member / exhibitor registration opens	11:00 AM ET
~Mid-Oct 2026	LBA submission deadline	per prior-year pattern (typically late Oct)
Nov 4, 2026	Regular abstracts available online	9:00 AM ET — Blood supplement release; ~5,000 abstracts go public
~Nov 24, 2026	Late-Breaking Abstracts released	12:00 noon ET (per prior-year pattern)
Dec 10–11, 2026 (Thu–Fri)	Pre-meeting workshops + scientific symposia
Dec 12, 2026 (Sat)	Meeting opens	Opening session + first oral abstract sessions
Dec 13, 2026 (Sun)	PLENARY SCIENTIFIC SESSION	The practice-changing slot. ~6 abstracts.
Dec 14, 2026 (Mon)	Day 3	Major oral sessions; CAR-T / bispecific / gene-therapy tracks
Dec 15, 2026 (Tue)	LATE-BREAKING ABSTRACTS + closing	Second high-priority slot
Dec 16, 2026 onward	Post-meeting recap window	ASH Clinical News, "Best of ASH," ASCO Post weekly recaps run into Feb 2027
Jan 12–15, 2027	JPM Healthcare 2027	The natural carry-forward — H1-2027 dealmaking thesis is set by ASH 2026 readouts

Sources: ASH Annual Meeting home, Abstracts page.

Note on dates: ASH 2026 is confirmed Dec 12–15, 2026 in New Orleans per the ASH official site as of May 11, 2026. (An earlier internal note listed Dec 5–8 / Orlando — incorrect; the ASH-site dates and venue supersede.)

Venue¶

Ernest N. Morial Convention Center + Caesars Superdome Walgreens area, New Orleans, Louisiana. Hybrid format: in-person + online platform. ~30,000 attendees expected (the standard ASH headcount). New Orleans last hosted ASH in 2022 (and prior 2017, 2013, 2009 — the city rotates with San Diego, Orlando, Atlanta on the ASH circuit).

Plenary Scientific Session — Sunday December 13, 2026¶

The Plenary is the practice-changing slot at ASH. The 2026 Plenary slate is not yet announced (typical announcement window: late October 2026 alongside the abstract drop). Per the ASH-standard pattern, expect 6 abstracts:

2–3 phase 3 practice-changing readouts in malignant heme (typically split: 1 DLBCL/lymphoma, 1 myeloma, 1 AML or CLL).
1 cell-and-gene-therapy abstract (typically CAR-T or gene-edited sickle cell durability).
1 non-malignant heme (hemophilia gene therapy, sickle cell, or thrombosis — typically rotating).
1 wild-card / mechanistic translational study (the "best translational science" slot).

All abstracts are flagged *expected, subject to embargo* until the abstract drop on Nov 4 / Nov 24.

Track shortlist — most-loaded tracks¶

Lymphoma (DLBCL, FL, MCL, CLL, T-cell)¶

The single largest disease axis at ASH.

DLBCL bispecifics — durability + earlier-line. Epcoritamab (EPCORE NHL-2 / -3 / -5 long-term), glofitamab (post-CD20×CD3 combos), mosunetuzumab (FL → DLBCL extensions). The class-of-2024 is now a class-of-2026 with 3-yr durability data. 1L combinations (epco-R-CHOP, glofit-Pola-R-CHP) are the new front.
Post-CAR-T salvage. Bispecific-after-CAR-T as the de facto salvage standard. Real-world registry data (CIBMTR, LYSA, GLA cohorts) frame the absolute numbers.
CLL — pirtobrutinib + venetoclax fixed-duration. BRUIN CLL-321 in covalent-BTKi-resistant CLL is the pivotal expected. Fixed-duration ven combinations (MAJIC, CLL17) frame the frontline.
Mantle cell + indolent. MCL pirtobrutinib / brexucabtagene autoleucel long-term; FL mosunetuzumab + lenalidomide.

Myeloma¶

Second largest disease axis. Bispecific / CAR-T crowd.

CARTITUDE-5 / -6 (J&J/Legend cilta-cel frontline pivots) — the frontline CAR-T moment.
KarMMa-9 (BMS ide-cel frontline) — parallel frontline pivot.
MajesTEC-3 / -5 (J&J teclistamab combinations) — bispecific + dara / pom / len frontline pivots.
MonumenTAL-3 (J&J talquetamab pivotal).
RedirecTT-1 / -2 (dual bispecific BCMA + GPRC5D in EMD MM) — class watch.
Allogeneic anti-BCMA CAR-T (Allogene, Caribou, others) — manufacturing / off-the-shelf class watch.

The dominant clinical question across the track: sequencing — bispecific-after-CAR-T vs CAR-T-after-bispecific; multiple real-world registries will speak to it.

Acute leukemias¶

AML menin (revumenib, ziftomenib) post-approval. Both approved late 2024 / 2025. Real-world + combos with ven/aza, FLT3i, IDHi. Frontline pivots beginning.
AML maintenance. VIALE-M (venetoclax maintenance post-induction) + others.
FLT3, IDH frontline. Gilteritinib, quizartinib, ivosidenib, enasidenib, olutasidenib — frontline + maintenance pivots.
B-ALL CAR-T. Adult ALL CAR-T (brexu-cel, tisa-gen) durability; pediatric updates.

MDS / MPN¶

Imetelstat post-IMerge real-world (lower-risk MDS TI).
Luspatercept frontline ESA-naive (COMMANDS long-term).
IDH inhibitors in MDS (Servier).
Myelofibrosis — momelotinib, pacritinib post-approval; selinexor combos.

Cell-and-gene therapy axis (cross-cutting)¶

ASH owns this story; no other heme meeting carries equal weight.

CAR-T 5-yr durability for axi-cel (Kite), liso-cel (BMS), cilta-cel (J&J/Legend), ide-cel (BMS/2seventy). The "CAR-T tail" — fraction still in remission at 5+ yr — is the load-bearing curve for the entire class economics.
SPM (second-primary-malignancy) signal. FDA reporting + CIBMTR registry data. The toxicity-class-action question.
Gene therapy for SCD. Exa-cel / Casgevy (Vertex/CRISPR) and lovo-cel / Lyfgenia (bluebird) 3+ yr post-approval data. Pediatric pivots. Access / payer data.
In-vivo gene editing for SCD. Beam, Editas, Verve, Prime Medicine pipelines. Class watch — early-phase.
Hemophilia gene therapy. Roctavian (BioMarin val-rox) and Hemgenix (CSL etranadez) 2–4 yr FVIII / FIX expression curves. The durability question.

Non-malignant heme¶

Hemophilia non-factor agents. Mim8 (Novo, FVIIIa-mimetic post-FRONTIER), concizumab (Novo), fitusiran (Sanofi) — bleed-rate pivots and long-term.
iTTP / TTP. Caplacizumab + rituximab follow-up.
PNH. Pegcetacoplan, iptacopan, danicopan — C5 vs C3 inhibitor head-to-heads / combinations.
Sickle cell non-gene-therapy. Voxelotor (post-withdrawal), crizanlizumab follow-up, etavopivat.
Thrombosis & hemostasis. Factor XI inhibitors (abelacimab, milvexian, asundexian) — post-OCEANIC / LIBREXIA / OCEANIC-AF data. Cross-link to cardiology readouts at AHA Nov 7–10, 2026.

Anticipated big readouts — top 5 (for the index report)¶

Bispecifics in DLBCL — 1L combinations + 3-yr durability (epco-R-CHOP, glofit-Pola-R-CHP; EPCORE NHL-5 long-term).
Bispecifics in MM — MajesTEC-3 / -5 and MonumenTAL-3 pivotal data; RedirecTT dual bispecific in EMD.
CAR-T 5-yr durability curves for axi-cel / liso-cel / cilta-cel / ide-cel; the "CAR-T tail" + SPM real-world signal.
Gene therapy for sickle cell — Casgevy and Lyfgenia 3+ yr durability + pediatric pivots + next-gen in-vivo editing early-phase.
AML maintenance + menin inhibitors evolving — VIALE-M venetoclax maintenance post-induction; revumenib + ziftomenib combos with ven/aza; frontline menin pivots beginning.

(Honorable mentions / runners-up: pirtobrutinib BRUIN CLL-321 covalent-BTKi-resistant CLL; CARTITUDE-5/-6 frontline cilta-cel MM; hemophilia gene-therapy 2–4 yr durability curves.)

Discussant watch list¶

Plenary discussants are usually announced ~2 weeks pre-meeting (so by ~late November). Names to expect / track (based on prior-year ASH patterns and disease-group seniority, not yet confirmed for 2026):

DLBCL / lymphoma: Laurie Sehn (BCCA), Jason Westin (MDACC), Loretta Nastoupil (MDACC), Catherine Thieblemont (Saint-Louis Paris), Stephen Schuster (Penn).
Myeloma: Saad Usmani (MSK), Paul Richardson (Dana-Farber), Maria-Victoria Mateos (Salamanca), Sagar Lonial (Emory), Robert Orlowski (MDACC).
AML: Eunice Wang (Roswell Park), Hartmut Doehner (Ulm), Eytan Stein (MSK), Naval Daver (MDACC), Andrew Wei (Walter+Eliza Hall).
CLL: Jennifer Brown (Dana-Farber), William Wierda (MDACC), John Allan (Cornell), Anthony Mato (Loxo/Lilly), Jeff Sharman (US Oncology / Willamette).
MDS: Amer Zeidan (Yale), Rami Komrokji (Moffitt), Uwe Platzbecker (Leipzig).
CAR-T / cellular therapy: Frederick Locke (Moffitt), Marcela Maus (MGH), Marcelo Pasquini (CIBMTR), Caron Jacobson (Dana-Farber).
Gene therapy for SCD: Haydar Frangoul (Sarah Cannon), Mark Walters (UCSF Benioff), Sharl Azar (MGH), Markus Mapara (Columbia).
Hemophilia gene therapy: Steven Pipe (Michigan), Glenn Pierce (WFH), Lindsey George (CHOP / Penn).

All names above are pre-confirmation guesses based on prior-year ASH patterns. Reconcile against the official program once discussants are posted.

What's speculative vs. confirmed¶

Confirmed (sourced and dated, May 11, 2026): - Meeting dates: Dec 12–15, 2026 (ASH.org) - Venue: Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, New Orleans + hybrid online - Abstract submission deadline: Aug 4, 2026; regular abstracts release Nov 4, 2026, 9:00 AM ET - Late-breaking abstracts release: ~late November 2026 (12:00 noon ET; date confirmed annually ~Oct)

Speculative — flag before publishing: - Plenary slate (announced late Oct) - LBA slate (released ~Nov 24) - All anticipated readouts above are inferred from company pipelines + AACR 2026 mechanism sessions + ASCO 2026 heme subset + prior-year ASH patterns. No ASH 2026 abstract content yet exists publicly. - Discussant identities (watch list above) - Practice-changing verdicts pending NCCN / ASH guideline updates and FDA filings

EHA 2026 reconciliation (mid-year)¶

EHA 2026 Hybrid Congress is June 11–14, 2026 in Milan, Italy (~6 weeks from today). EHA is the European equivalent and frequently presents heme-cancer readouts that update at ASH six months later. Capture EHA-first readouts in mid-June and tag them in trials/ as "EHA 2026 readout, ASH 2026 update expected." This drives a substantial fraction of the ASH pre-meeting framing.

Typical EHA → ASH update patterns: - EHA presents 1- or 2-yr update; ASH presents 3-yr update. - EHA presents phase 2 cohort; ASH presents phase 3. - EHA presents European subset; ASH presents global cohort.

Dead ends (for now, ~7 months out)¶

Full abstract text, session times, hall assignments: abstract release is Nov 4 (180 days out); session grid posts ~late October. Cannot fabricate.
Plenary slate: announced late October. Cannot fabricate.
LBA slate: released ~Nov 24. Cannot fabricate.
Speaker slide decks / data figures: not pre-released by ASH. Only available via ASH virtual (paid registration) or post-presentation press coverage.
AACR 2026 cross-links specific to ASH-presenter overlap: requires post-presentation reconciliation; will populate during the Dec 12–15 live window.