Grant: Project Grant

Nodular lymphocyte predominant Hodgkin lymphoma (NLPHL) is recognized as a unique disease type in a spectrum of related lymphomas originating from B lymphocytes. Although current treatments in clinical practice are generally effective, a subset of patients suffers from lymphoma progression and aggressive disease transformations. To improve care for affected patients, a better understanding of disease origins and progression is needed. However, detailed biologic characterizations of NLPHL using modern analysis methods, including genomics, are currently unavailable. Here, we propose to analyze clonal evolution of tumor cells and describe the unique spatial architecture of lymphoma tissues available in the biobank of BC Cancer's Centre for Lymphoid Cancer. A main research focus will be to understand how malignant cells interact with immune cells in their direct vicinity and how knowledge about these cellular interactions can be used to develop new treatments, including targeted and immune therapies. Overall, we anticipate that our study will provide novel insights into the complex disease biology of so far understudied lymphomas and lead to improvements of current diagnostic and treatment procedures to the benefit of patients with NLPHL.