Molecular Diagnostics committee
Composition
Chair
B.A. van der Reijden (RadboudUMC, Nijmegen)
Vice-Chair
Dr. P.J.M. Valk (ErasmusMC, Rotterdam)
Secretary
L. Smit (Amsterdam UMC, Amsterdam)
Key objectives of working group
The key objectives of this working group are:
- To establish reliable molecular diagnostics of hematologic malignancies
- Harmonization of methods
- Standardization of techniques in terms of sensitivity and specificity
- The free exchange of materials and methods
- The organization of quality control rounds
- Implementation of new developments in the field of molecular diagnostics
In hemato-oncology, molecular diagnostics is important for adequate (I) diagnostics (eg. myeloproliferative diseases (MPD)), (II) prognostics (eg. acute myeloid leukemia (AML)) and (III) minimal residual disease detection (eg. chronic myeloid leukemia (CML)). At diagnosis, adequate diagnostics as well as the choice of treatment often depend on the presence or absence of a genetic defect. During treatment and follow-up, monitoring of minimal residual disease using molecular methods provides a highly sensitive way to determine response to (novel) therapy and to follow the subsequent course of the diseases at sub-clinical levels.
To this end a network was initiated by several Dutch and Belgian hematological centers in 1996 (MODHEM Network for Molecular Diagnostics of Hematologic Malignancies).
The MODHEM organizes quality control rounds with blinded samples to achieve standardization and high quality among the participating molecular diagnostic laboratories. Blinded samples are send 5 times a year, each time covering a particular subset of hematological malignancies, e.g., AML (RUNX1-RUNX1T, CBFB-MYH11, FLT3 mutations, NPM1 mutations, CEBPA, TP53, RUNX1 and ASXL1 mutations), APL (PML-RARA) , CML (BCR-ABL1), MPD (JAK2 V617F-JAK2 exon 12, CALR and MPL mutations) or ALL (BCR-ABL1 and MLL-AF4) or patient/donor samples to determine chimerism. MODHEM is very active in the field of next generation sequencing.
The results of the quality control rounds are presented and discussed at bi-annual meetings with all members of the MODHEM.
MODHEM has joined the SKML in 2012.
Further information is available at: www.modhem.nl
Molecular diagnostic form
Please find the molecular diagnostics form below.