The 2008 WHO-classification: small and big changes!

Abstract

This issue of the Journal of Hematopathology contains a series of commentaries written by the editors of the journal. In these commentaries the changes in the previous classification are discussed, including some background information. Regarding some entities, criticism is put forward on some of the choices of the WHO-editorial team. This shows that the WHO-classification is work in progress, which will summarize the state of the art at a given timepoint, but science goes on. It would therefore be desirable for the WHO-group to open a web-based discussion platform for fast interaction within the community of hematopathologists. Nevertheless, the Blue Book is an important source of information and facilitates communication and exchange of scientific findings thanks to the common language on the hematological malignancies it advocates. This issue contains an update of the literature on bone marrow pathology, but the review on lymphoma pathology is lacking. This was decided because the number of commentaries was quite large and the issue might become too voluminous: the next issue will have a (long!) review of the literature. The Journal has celebrated its first anniversary, and I am very happy with all the positive responses and interesting manuscripts that are submitted. An important step forward would be a listing in PubMed, and it seems that the chances are good that this will happen before the end of the year. J. Han van Krieken