2024 Orange County Patient and Family Regional Meeting
Conference Overview
We are excited to host a Patient and Family Regional Meeting, on Saturday, June 1st in Orange, California.
The agenda includes talks covering all histiocytic disorders, information on clinical trials and registries, emotional support, well-being, and diagnosing histiocytosis.
The Histiocytosis Association is grateful to be partnering with Children's Hospital of Orange County to bring you this educational opportunity and forum to connect with other patients, families, and physicians.
Open to all impacted by a histiocytic disorder. Medical professionals are welcome to attend any and all talks.
You’ll learn directly from leaders in histiocytosis care and research on each of the histiocytic disorders in both children and adults, including:
- Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH)
- Hemophagocytic syndromes (HLH/MAS)
- Erdheim-Chester disease (ECD)
- Rosai Dorfman disease (RDD)
- Xanthogranuloma (JXG/XG)
It’s FREE to attend and registration for the event is required.
(**Once registration is completed you will receive information and directions to the meeting location).
Speakers
Here are a few of the experts you'll be learning from:
Lilibeth Torno, MD – Children’s Hospital of Orange County
Dr. Torno is the Chief of Oncology and the Medical Director of the Hyundai Cancer Institute at CHOC. She is Clinical Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California Irvine School of Medicine. Dr. Torno’s clinical and research focus includes Histiocytic disorders, cancer survivorship and bone and soft tissue sarcomas among others. She has done research on monitoring circulating BRAF as a biomarker for Langerhans cell histiocytosis and has engaged in various programmatic and research work on cancer survivorship for childhood, adolescent and young adult cancer.
Melissa Hines, MD – St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Dr. Hines is an Associate Member (Professor) at St Jude Children’s Hospital in the Division of Critical Care Medicine. In addition to clinical work and research in onco-critical care, she is the director of the Histiocytosis and Immune Dysregulation Treatment Team that specializes in the care of patients with a myriad of hyperinflammatory disorders, including hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis (HLH) and refractory cytokine release syndrome. She has a special interest in the use of JAK inhibitors in hyperinflammatory syndromes and is the principal investigator of a clinical trial testing the efficacy of ruxolitinib in pediatric HLH.
Beth Martin, MD – Stanford University
Dr. Martin is the lead adult clinician for the Stanford Histiocytosis Program and the Medical Director of the John and Catherine Debs HLH Program at Stanford. As a PGY-37 clinician, she first learned about histiocytoses during her hematology-oncology and bone marrow transplantation fellowships in both pediatric and adult populations at the University of Rochester. She has been caring for patients with a wide variety of histiocytic malignancies and HLH since her move to Stanford Medical Center and VA Palo Alto Healthcare System in 1999. She is thankful for the ongoing education about histiocytosis from the clinical, patient, and family members of the Histiocytosis Association and the Erdheim-Chester Global Alliance, as well as the collegiality and educational opportunities of the Histiocyte Society.
Drs. Michael Jeng, Stephen Simko, Sunil Reddy (Stanford), and Michelle Hermiston (UCSF) have been particularly instrumental in supporting her in providing expert clinical care.
She presents her talk on HLH in memory of her mentor, Dr. Elizabeth Mellins, a pediatric rheumatologist who died on March 24, 2024.
Travel Scholarships Available - Limited Quantity
We are delighted to be able to offer a limited number of travel scholarships to patients/caregivers to help offset the cost of travel to attend the conference in person.
The travel scholarship is meant for those individuals who would not be able to cover the cost for their travel and participation fully. Assistance is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis. To be eligible to receive travel assistance, please complete and submit the Travel Scholarship Application no later than Friday, May 10th. Please note that due to limited funds, all requests may not be approved.
Scholarship decisions will be announced by Friday, May 17th .
Special Thanks to our sponsors
Presenting Sponsor: Conference Partner:
