The World Health Organization classification of XXXX report of the Clinical Advisory Committee Meeting, Airlie House, Virginia, November 1997.

@entity5 @entity1 @entity1583 @entity706
Since 1995, the European Association of Pathologists and the Society for Hematopathology have been developing a new World Health Organization (WHO) classification of @entity1583 . The classification includes lymphoid, myeloid, histiocytic, and mast cell @entity5 . The WHO project involves 10 committees of pathologists, who have developed lists and definitions of disease entities. A Clinical Advisory Committee of international hematologists and oncologists was formed to ensure that the classification will be useful to clinicians. A meeting was held in November 1997 to discuss clinical issues related to the classification. The WHO has adopted the Revised European-American Classification of Lymphoid Neoplasms, published in 1994 by the International @entity706 Study Group, as the classification of @entity706 . This approach to classification is based on the principle that a classification is a list of "real" disease entities, which are defined by a combination of morphology, immunophenotype, genetic features, and clinical features. The relative importance of each of these features varies among diseases, and there is no one "gold standard." The WHO classification has applied the principles of the Revised European-American Classification of Lymphoid Neoplasms to myeloid and histiocytic @entity5 . The classification of myeloid @entity5 recognizes distinct entities defined by a combination of morphology and cytogenetic abnormalities. The Clinical Advisory Committee meeting, which was organized around a series of clinical questions, was able to reach a consensus on most of the questions posed. The questions and the consensus are discussed in detail in this article. Among other things, the Clinical Advisory Committee concluded that clinical grouping of @entity706 was neither necessary nor desirable. @entity1 treatment is determined by the specific @entity706 , with the addition of grade within the @entity5 type, if applicable, and clinical prognostic factors such as the international prognostic index. The experience of developing the WHO classification has produced a new and exciting degree of cooperation and communication between oncologists and pathologists from around the world. This should facilitate progress in the understanding and treatment of @entity1583 .
