Research
81
In recent years, more attention, funding and laboratory bench time has
been devoted to cutaneous lymphoma research than ever before, and early
clues about its biology are being discovered.
Unfortunately, we still have only a hint as to the origins of cutaneous
lymphomas. Research studies aimed at measuring accurate disease
frequency (new cases per year) and prevalence (number of people affected)
in diverse populations and parts of the world are important to learning
more on how these diseases come about, what treatments are most effective
and ultimately finding a cure.
Great advances have been made in the arena of immunobiology
(fundamentals of the body’s immune system) of cutaneous T-cell lymphoma
(CTCL) over the last several years. However, clinical research in cutaneous
lymphomas has historically been hampered by a limited enrollment of
patients into clinical trials due to the relatively small population of patients,
previous lack of consensus definitions of disease staging and monitoring,
and insufficient collaboration between specialties and institutions. Multi-
institutional and multidisciplinary coordination of clinical trial initiatives is
imperative to overcome this obstacle to accelerate new drug development
and testing. The United States Cutaneous Lymphoma Consortium
(USCLC,
) is a newly-emerging multidisciplinary
professional organization with the mission of developing a US-based
research infrastructure and clinical trial network to support this need.
1
The inspirational tag line of the Cutaneous Lymphoma Foundation
(CLF)’s Cutaneous Lymphoma Summit held in New York in 2009,
“community, cooperation, cure”, brought into focus the great potential of
PART 5:
RESEARCH
Chapter 16
Overview
Part
55
