Introduction
Clinical Hematology International: Case Reports (CHI:CR) is designed to capture and structure the first signals of clinical innovation in hematology at the level where they emerge: the individual patient.
Clinical hematology is among the most rapidly evolving medical specialties. Targeted therapies, chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy, precision genomics, and novel immunotherapeutics have reshaped the diagnosis and management of both malignant and non-malignant blood diseases within a single generation.1,2 Yet the earliest evidence of these advances, a first-in-field toxicity signal, an unexpected remission, a diagnostic breakthrough, almost invariably surfaces not in a clinical trial, but at the bedside, in a single patient.3
Clinical Hematology International (CHI), the official open-access journal of the International Academy for Clinical Hematology International was established in 2019 to serve as the premier forum for clinical reviews, guidelines, and original research in the field.4 As the breadth and granularity of hematological case observations have grown, the editors have recognized that a dedicated sister journal, purpose-built for case-level knowledge, is both strategically warranted and scientifically essential. CHI:CR is that journal.
Why CHI:CR, and Why Now?
Case reports remain the primary source of first-in-field clinical insights in medicine. The initial characterizations of chronic myelogenous leukemia, thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura, and, more recently, immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI)-associated aplastic anemia and vaccine-induced immune thrombocytopenia and thrombosis (VITT) each emerged through meticulous individual patient documentation.5,6 In hematology, where disease heterogeneity is exceptional and rare presentations are common, the case report is not a peripheral genre; it is a core engine.
Despite this, the publication environment for hematology case reports has narrowed. Major journals have progressively restricted or eliminated case report sections in favor of high-impact original research, creating a growing disconnect between clinical observation and published evidence.7 Clinically meaningful cases, rare diagnoses, novel toxicity profiles, and atypical treatment responses are documented internally but never reach the literature. This represents a loss for patients, clinicians, and the scientific community alike.
CHI:CR aims to close this gap, with a scope, editorial positioning, and publication model specifically designed for case-level hematology evidence.
What Distinguishes CHI:CR
Three features define CHI: CR and differentiate it from general case report journals:
1. Hematology-exclusive focus. CHI:CR covers the full spectrum of clinical hematology, malignant and non-malignant, pediatric and adult, rare and common, within a single, specialist-curated platform. Reviewers are hematologists. Editorial standards reflect hematology-specific diagnostic and therapeutic complexity. Authors receive field-relevant feedback, not generalist commentary.
2. Hypothesis-generating positioning. CHI:CR is not a repository. Every submission is evaluated not only for its immediate clinical interest, but for the research question it raises. Authors are expected to articulate the broader lesson their case offers and, where appropriate, the hypothesis it generates for future investigation. The individual case is the beginning of an evidence chain, not its end.
3. A direct publication pipeline to CHI. As the official sister journal of CHI, CHI:CR creates a structured pathway from case observation to clinical evidence synthesis. Observations documented in CHI:CR may evolve into systematic reviews, meta-analyses, or clinical guidelines published in CHI. The two journals are editorially coordinated, with shared board membership and a shared mission: to advance the practice of clinical hematology through rigorous, open-access dissemination of knowledge.
Scope and Priority Case Categories
CHI:CR welcomes case reports and short case series (two to five patients) across all domains of clinical hematology. Priority categories, each illustrated with a representative example in the Appendix, include:
Rare and ultra-rare hematologic diseases
Conditions such as VEXAS syndrome, Diamond-Blackfan anemia, and congenital platelet disorders are characterized almost entirely through accumulated case-level documentation. CHI:CR provides a permanent, indexed home for these observations.8
Atypical presentations of common diseases
Acute myeloid leukemia presenting as isolated thrombocytopenia, or multiple myeloma with an unusual extramedullary pattern, can delay diagnosis and mislead clinical management. Documenting these presentations expands the field’s collective diagnostic awareness.9
Unexpected or paradoxical treatment responses
Off-label responses to approved agents, paradoxical disease acceleration, and acquired resistance mechanisms are among the most scientifically generative observations in clinical hematology and among the most likely to generate formal investigational hypotheses.10
Drug-related and therapy-induced hematologic complications
Drug-induced cytopenias, ICI-associated hematologic immune-related adverse events, and chemotherapy-induced thrombotic microangiopathy represent categories in which the case report literature has been, and continues to be, the primary signal-detection mechanism.11
Infectious disease and hematology intersections
Secondary hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis infection-triggered autoimmune hemolytic anemia, and COVID-19-associated coagulopathy each illustrate how infectious events can unmask or precipitate hematological emergencies requiring prompt specialist recognition.12
Hematology in special populations
Pregnancy, pediatric patients, the elderly, and populations with genetically distinctive disease burdens (sickle cell disease, thalassemia syndromes, G6PD deficiency) are systematically underrepresented in clinical trials. Case reports remain the primary source of evidence for management decisions in these groups.13
Diagnostic challenges and novel diagnostic approaches
Diagnostic odysseys documenting the reasoning from presentation to diagnosis, and reports illustrating the clinical utility of next-generation sequencing, optical genome mapping, or advanced flow cytometry in ambiguous or complex cases, serve a critical educational function for the hematology community.14
Editorial Standards and Ethical Commitments
All submissions to CHI:CR will be required to follow the CARE (CAse REport) guidelines,15 which provide the international standard for structured, transparent case report presentation. Peer review will be conducted by at least two independent expert reviewers, with a target decision time of four weeks from submission.
CHI:CR upholds the highest ethical standards. Documented informed patient consent for publication, appropriate institutional approval, and full compliance with the Declaration of Helsinki16 are mandatory for all submissions. Patient anonymization will be rigorously assessed, with particular attention to rare or highly identifiable presentations.
Conclusion
CHI:CR is launched not as a supplement to existing hematology publishing, but as a dedicated infrastructure for a category of evidence that the field has long generated and too rarely preserved.
We invite hematologists, hematopathologists, oncologists, and allied health professionals worldwide to contribute their case observations to this journal, whether a first description of an emerging entity, an instructive diagnostic challenge, an unexpected treatment response, or a lesson hard-earned at the bedside.
In an era of increasingly complex and individualized therapies, the future of hematology will be shaped not only by trials but by the precise documentation of individual patient experiences. CHI: CR is designed to capture these signals early, rigorously, and globally.
Conflicts of Interest
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
Funding
This editorial received no specific funding from any public, commercial, or not-for-profit agency.
Authors’ contribution – CRediT
Conceptualization: Mohamad Mohty (Equal), Tetsuzan B. Ron (Equal). Writing – original draft: Mohamad Mohty (Equal), Tetsuzan B. Ron (Equal). Writing – review & editing: Mohamad Mohty (Equal), Arnon Nagler (Equal), Bipin Savani (Equal), Ali Bazarbachi, Tetsuzan B. Ron (Equal).