1965

First international conference on Hodgkin’s disease in Paris, with 22 speakers from nine countries. The conference achieved consensus that patients with long survivals actually had Hodgkin’s disease, and that selected patients with early-stage Hodgkin’s could be cured with radiotherapy. Regarding clinical evaluation, the “exciting new technique” of lymphangiogram was introduced, with the Stanford group leading the way. “The Paris conference was a milestone in the history of Hodgkin’s disease. The critical question of potential curability had been answered, and other important issues – pathologic classification, staging, and appropriate therapy – had been addressed” (C. Jacobs, 159ff., quoted at 162). It was followed by a second conference seven months later organized by Kaplan in Rye, NY, with only 42 selected participants. They agreed on a new pathologic classification system (the Rye Classification) that lasted into the 21st c. Participants also agreed to try the Stanford Four-Stage Clinical Classification System proposed by Stanford’s Saul Rosenberg in which a Stage IV (organ involvement) followed Vera Peters’ three-stage system (Stage I: involvement of a single lymph node region; Stage II: involvement of two or more lymph node regions in either upper or lower body; Stage III: involvement of lymph nodes in both upper and lower half of body) (163-166).