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Impact and importance of a centralised review panel for lymphoma diagnostics in the WHO era: a single-centre experience
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  • Published on: 9 April 2020
    A report on the impact of the introduction of a centralised lymphoma review network in Ireland
    • Kate A Dinneen, Specialist Registrar in Histopathology St James's Hospital, Dublin
    • Other Contributors:
      • Richard J Flavin, Consultant Histopathologist

    Dear Editor,

    Further to our 2019 paper entitled ‘Impact and importance of a centralised review panel for lymphoma diagnostics in the WHO era: a single centre experience’, we write to report on the impact of the subsequent introduction of a centralised lymphoma review network in Ireland.
    We previously described a discordance rate of 7.8% (14/179) between referral and review lymphoma diagnoses sent to St. James’s Hospital (SJH) Dublin for multi-disciplinary team (MDT) review between 2013-2016. Since then a formal lymphoma review network has been established in Ireland, resulting in a significant increase in lymphoma cases reviewed at SJH. 736 lymphoma cases were reviewed between 2017-2019, of which 0.007% had a discordant diagnosis (5/736). This rate is markedly lower than that previously reported in the published literature (6-48%) [1, 2].

    This dramatic reduction in the level of discordant lymphoma diagnoses demonstrates the positive impact of centralized review networks with specialist haematopathologist input upon lymphoma diagnostics in Ireland. This trend is most likely attributable to the fact that cases are now referred directly to SJH for Specialist Haematopathologist opinion pre-diagnosis, where the necessary ancillary tests required for accurate diagnosis are available on site. Additionally, as previously discussed by Bowen et al, rates of diagnostic discrepancies tend to be higher in non-academic institutions compared to academic institutions...

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    Conflict of Interest:
    None declared.