An overview of the Fifth International Symposium on Hodgkin's lymphoma: recent advances in basic and clinical research.

*Correspondence to: Dr S. Wiedenmann, Department of Internal Medicine I, University of Cologne, Joseph-Stelzmann-Str. 9, D-50924 Cologne, Germany. Tel: +49-221-478-3505; Fax: +49-221-478-3105; E-mail: [email protected] The Fifth International Symposium on Hodgkin’s Lymphoma was held in Cologne, Germany, between September 22 and 25, 2001. More than 600 physicians and scientists from 48 countries attended this symposium, organized by the German Hodgkin’s Lymphoma Study Group (GHSG), and chaired by Professor Volker Diehl from the University of Cologne. The scientific program covered a broad range of pre-clinical and clinical topics in the field of Hodgkin’s disease (HD) and provided a comprehensive update of scientific and clinical progress. The ‘state of the art’ with regard to recent scientific achievements has been presented by well-known experts. This symposium aimed to serve as an outstanding forum dedicated to basic and clinical research in HD. This introduction summarizes the essential findings presented in Cologne.