Issn Print: 0147-5185
Publication Date: 1996/03/01
A Single-institution Perspective: The Vancouver Experience with Identification of Clinicopathologic Prognostic Factors
Excerpt
The Vancouver Cancer Clinic of the British Columbia Cancer Agency is the primary referral center for malignant lymphoma, serving a population now approaching four million. There is a consecutive accrual of patients who are uniformly staged and treated, without referral or selection bias. Patients are enrolled in treatment protocols with long-term follow-up, thus providing consistent cohorts for the analysis of outcome. With clinical factors held constant, particularly treatment, these patient groups provide an excellent opportunity to study pathological variables that might predict outcome. This form of analysis is facilitated by a comprehensive computerized data base that is continuously updated. Retrospective studies can be performed without knowledge of clinical outcome and are a valuable resource. The development of the MACOP-B third-generation chemotherapy regimen in Vancouver in 1981 and subsequent experimental protocols for the treatment of diffuse large-cell lymphoma (DLCL) provide a uniform population-based registry onto which pathological variables can be added and clinicopathologic prognostic models developed to better predict outcome in DLCL.
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Email
