A Perspective of the Kiel Classification in Relation to Other Recent Classifications of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, with Special Reference to the Working Formulation

Abstract

Although the scientific and conceptual premises of the Kiel classification are based on the investigative work done by Lennert and co-workers in the fifties and sixties (see Lennert 1978), the classification in its original version was only published in 1974 (Gérard-Marchant et al. 1974). At about the same time, other classifications were proposed by several groups. Lukes’ and Collins’ classification (Lukes and Collins 1974a, b), like the Kiel classification, incorporated much of the new immunology-based knowledge on the life history of the lymphoid cell, whereas the schemes proposed by Dorfman (1974) and the British National Lymphoma Investigation (Bennett et al. 1974) employed descriptive morphological terms for the definition of categories. The “blue book” of the World Health Organization, entitled “Histological and Cytological Typing of Neoplastic Diseases of Haematopoietic and Lymphoid Tissues” (Mathé et al. 1976), introduced yet another classification.

Presented by Bloomfield, Berard and Rosenberg at several recent meetings; paper by Rosenberg et al. to be published in New Engl J Med