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ePaper created 2014-09-15, 12:31:02 | version 1.32.01
Cutaneous Lymphoma Willem van Vloten may be considered the founding father of this longstanding and highly successful line of research. Almost from the very beginning a multidisciplinary approach was followed, both in patient care and research in close collaboration between the departments of dermatology (Willem van Vloten, Rein Willemze), pathology (Chris Meijer, Erik Scheffer) and radiation oncology (Ed Noordijk). In the 70s and early 80s research was focused on new diagnostic techniques including DNA cytopho- tometry, morphometry (nuclear countour measurements) and immunohistochemistry facilitating dif- ferentiation between early stages of mycosis fungoides from benign inflammatory dermatoses.[1,2,3] In the mid 80s the Leiden cutaneous lymphoma group split apart, when Willem van Vloten moved to Utrecht and Rein Willemze and Chris Meijer left for the VU University Amsterdam. To prevent coun- teractive competition and to continue successful multidisciplinary collaboration the Dutch Cutaneous Lymphoma Group was constituted. The main goals of this group, which consisted of dermatologists, pathologists and a radiation oncologist from all eight university centers was to provide diagnostic and therapeutic advice for individual patients, to develop uniform criteria for diagnosis, management and treatment, to constitute a classification for cutaneous lymphomas, to start a national registry, to stimulate clinical and basic research, and to organize postgraduate courses for dermatologists, pathologists, radiation oncologists and hematologists. To this end, each year four to five meetings are organized, in which clinical and histological data of all new patients with a (suspected) cutaneous lymphoma are reviewed by a multidisciplinary panel, a final diagnosis is made and therapeutic options are discussed. All patients submitted to the group are included in the national database and follow-up data are collected annually. Between October 1985 and April 2013 this number has reached more than 3500 patients. In recent years this Dutch model has also been introduced in many other European countries. Because of the availability of relatively large groups of patients with uncommon types of cutaneous lymphoma, the Dutch group played a key role in the definition of new types of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma and cutaneous B-cell lymphoma, the formulation of new classification systems for cutaneous lymphomas (EORTC classification, 1997; WHO-EORTC classification, 2005; WHO 2008 classification, 2008) and the development of international guidelines for the diagnosis and management of these diseases.[4-7] In 2000 the Dutch Cutaneous Lymphoma Group and the national cutaneous lymphoma registry came home and Leiden once again became the national referral center for 86 Mycosis fungoides. BWEADVSMGFINCORR:Opmaak 1 21-07-2014 17:40 Pagina 86