The First European Conference on Infections in Leukaemia – ECIL1: A current perspective

The First European Conference on Infections in Leukaemia – ECIL1 – was organised under the auspices of the Infectious Diseases Group of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC), the Infectious Diseases Working Party of the European Group for Blood and Bone Marrow Transplantation (EBMT), the Supportive Care Group of the European LeukaemiaNet (ELN) and the International Immunocompromised Host Society (ICHS). The objective of the meeting was to develop evidence-based guidelines for the management of bacterial and fungal infections in high-risk immunocompromised adult leukaemia patients and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation recipients. The conference was held on September 30th and October 1st, 2005 in Juan-les-Pins, France and brought together a panel of 59 expert haematologists, oncologists, microbiologists, infectious disease specialists and clinical trialists from across Europe, Israel and Australia. The ECIL1 Guidelines were formulated after lengthy discussion, debate and panel consensus on the findings from a relevant comprehensive literature search, results of a European current practice questionnaire and other international guidelines, specific to each of the six clinical areas examined. The final recommendations, published in the Supplements of this journal as a series of six manuscripts in 2007, were well received by the medical community. The ECIL1 organisers anticipated the need for regular review of these guidelines and the Second ECIL Conference was held in September 2007. Publication of the updated and expanded ECIL2 Guidelines is forthcoming. This paper provides a concise summary of the methodology and main recommendations of the ECIL1 Guidelines.