Haemline

In double cord blood transplantation, one unit engrafts and the other is rejected—but the losing unit might be doing more than previously imagined. A 2025 Blood Advances study from the Eurocord–EBMT registry reveals how the immunological battle between cord units can be redirected against leukaemia, particularly when the patient and losing unit share the right HLA mismatches. In this episode, we u...

Which children and young adults with acute myeloid leukaemia should receive transplant in first remission? This episode explores a landmark 2025 analysis from the Children's Oncology Group that revisits this longstanding question through a contemporary molecular lens. Huang and colleagues, publishing in the Journal of Clinical Oncology , analysed outcomes for over 1,400 patients from the AAML...

Which children and young adults with acute myeloid leukaemia should receive transplant in first remission? In this Rapid Review , we explore a landmark analysis by Huang et al., published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology in April 2025. Reclassifying over 1,400 patients using AAML1831 criteria, the study offers a contemporary perspective on who gains from transplant—and who doesn't. The res...

Could targeting the menin–KMT2A axis up front improve outcomes in older adults with NPM1-mutated or KMT2A-rearranged AML? In this episode, we examine new phase I data from Zeidner and colleagues, published in The Journal of Clinical Oncology in June 2025, investigating revumenib in combination with azacitidine and venetoclax for newly diagnosed patients ineligible for intensive therapy. We explore...

Building on our earlier Biology Tangent episode on menin inhibition, this clinical deep-dive explores the pivotal AUGMENT-101 trial results that led to FDA approval of revumenib — the first licensed menin inhibitor for acute leukaemias. Revumenib has shown meaningful activity in relapsed or refractory KMT2A-rearranged and NPM1-mutated acute leukaemias, illustrating how targeting transcriptional de...

How does understanding normal blood cell development lead to breakthrough cancer therapies? This Biology Tangent episode explores the science behind menin inhibitors - therapies that act across age groups, lineages, and genetic subtypes by targeting shared developmental circuitry. We examine why both KMT2A-rearranged and NPM1-mutated leukaemias depend on this unexpected vulnerability, and how disr...

A deeper dive for haematology trainees and biomedical scientists. This bonus episode explores the technology behind specific modern full blood count analysers—including Sysmex, Beckman Coulter, Abbott, Siemens, and Roche—and why analyser choice matters clinically, diagnostically, and even in exams. Episode type: Core Haematology

The 2am anaemia admission. The four-year-old who’s "a bit tired" with a normal Hb and MCV. The anaemic dialysis patient with a mildly raised ferritin. In each case, reticulocyte parameters could change your clinical decision-making. Join us to explore how modern analysers reveal not just red cell quantity but quality, why CHr outperforms ferritin in detecting early iron deficiency, and h...

Platelets are minuscule, but they cause outsized trouble in the lab and the clinic. From EDTA clumping to cryoglobulin confusion, from giant platelets that escape detection to inherited disorders masquerading as ITP, we explore the curious twists behind every platelet parameter. Join us for a tour of the quirks and pitfalls of platelet counting, why the MPV misleads more than it helps, and how the...

Full blood counts: We all request thousands and glance at them every day. If there’s one test worth understanding inside out, it’s this one. This episode focuses on white cells: how modern analysers generate a differential count, why they throw up so many flags, and when you should pick up the phone. Learn how to interpret automated white cell differentials, when to insist on a blood film, and why...

Haemline Trailer Welcome to Haemline, your companion for bite-sized haematology learning on the go. Whether you're commuting, doing the washing up, or simply too exhausted after a long shift to read anything, we aim to deliver focused haematology education to complement the excellent podcast resources already available. Created by practising UK haematologists, our scripts are carefully crafte...

Red cells: they're not just bags of haemoglobin. In this episode of Haemline, we explore the diagnostic goldmine hiding in those RBC parameters you've possibly been scrolling past. Learn how to interpret red cell count, MCV, RDW, MCH, and MCHC in context—and why their relationships often matter more than the numbers alone. Featuring: cold agglutinins behaving badly, the rule of threes, a...

Welcome back to Haemline. This is episode two in our six-part series on the full blood count. You order it every day. You trust it—perhaps too much. You ignore parameters that might actually be useful. By the end of this series, we hope you'll never look at an FBC the same way again. In today's episode, "Dead Cells Tell Tales: How Pre-Analytical Pitfalls Shape the FBC," we&apos...

Welcome to the first episode of Haemline, your companion for haematology learning on-the-go. Today marks the beginning of our six-part series on the full blood count – that ubiquitous test we order countless times each day. Over the coming episodes, we'll explore everything from pre-analytical pitfalls to the clinical insights hidden within those parameters you often ignore. In this first epi...