Evaluation of pathology review of malignant lymphomas and Hodgkin's disease in cooperative clinical trials. The Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group experience

Abstract

Although central expert pathology review for quality assurance in cooperative clinical trials involving malignant lymphomas and Hodgkin's disease was put in place by the NCI two decades ago, its impact upon patient eligibility for given treatment protocols has never been assessed. We reviewed diagnoses from contributing pathologists, the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) review pathologists and the Pathology Panel for Lymphoma Clinical Studies in 2019 cases from 14 ECOG protocols. Although we found high rates of disagreements in diagnoses, the vast majority of these represented differences which did not impact on protocol eligibility. A total of 221 cases (10.9%) were excluded from protocols, representing a range of 2.8 to 36.7% of cases per protocol. Eighty-six percent of the exclusions resulted from the initial review by the ECOG hematopathologists. Our data indicate that while central pathology review is mandatory for quality assurance in malignant lymphoma (ML) and Hodgkin's disease (HD) protocols, a two-tier review mechanism is not necessary for adequate quality control.