The lymphoma research group
Group leader
The lymphoma program consists of clinicians, pathologists and radiologists at the OUH Radiumhospitalet and basic scientists at the Department of Cancer Immunology at the Institute for Cancer Research OUH - Dept. of Cancer Immunology (ous-research.no) with dedication for malignant lymphomas. Together we aim to provide optimal care and treatment for our patients, possibilities to participate in relevant clinical studies as well as translational and molecular/biological lymphoma research. Clinicians in charge of the research activities constitute the Lymphoma research group.
We have broad national and international cooperation with i.e. the Nordic Lymphoma Group Home - Nordic-lymphoma : Nordic-lymphoma and other European study groups like the German Lymphoma Alliance (GLA) German Lymphoma Alliance (german-lymphoma-alliance.de), German Hodgkin Study Group (GHSG) Home - GHSG - German Hodgkin Study Group, British National Lymphoma Investigation (BNLI) ctc.ucl.ac.uk, the European Bone Marrow Transplantation Group (EBMT) Discover more at EBMT, the Norwegian Cancer Registry (Kreftregisteret) and European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) European Organisation For Research And Treatment Of Cancer - EORTC. The Norwegian Radium Hospital is one of three European Hospitals which are members of the Lymphoma and Leukemia Molecular Profiling Project (LLMPP), headed by National Cancer Institute, USA LymphoChip microarray Gene Expression Gateway (nih.gov).
We are open to collaborations both with academic and industry partners.
Together, we are currently supervising 5 PhD students as main or co-supervisors.
There are approximately 1200 new cases of malignant lymphomas in Norway per year (incidence 2.7/100 000 for Hodgkin lymphoma, 18.1 for Non-Hodgkin lymphoma combined) with a rather stable incidence over the last 10 years. Malignant lymphomas are diverse lymphoid malignancies, with approximately 150 new cases of Hodgkin lymphoma and more than 1000 new cases of all non-Hodgkin lymphomas combined in 2022. For most cases the etiology is unknown, but bacteria and viruses have been shown to be involved in the pathogenesis for some entities.
Today, OUH is the tertiary referral hospital and leading academic intuition for South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority, comprising about 50% of the Norwegian population. For some special situations, OUH is still the national referral hospital, such as treatment with chimeric antigen receptor T-cells and post-transplant lymphoproliferative disease.
Malignant lymphomas are in principle chemo- and radiosensitive diseases and frequently respond well to various forms of immunological therapy. The course of the disease and response to therapy varies, however, both between different entities and between patients with the same entity. The treatment depends on a correct histopathological diagnosis, staging and other risk assessments. Over recent years, molecular diagnostic techniques are being used to an increasing extent.