dr. A. (Arjan) Diepstra

I am a hematopathologist and associate professor at the University Medical Center Groningen. My research is embedded in the Cancer Research Center Groningen. My main research interest involves malignant lymphoma, in particular Hodgkin lymphoma, with a strong focus on interactions between tumor cells and the microenvironment. In my PhD thesis "Classical Hodgkin lymphoma: population based studies on HLA and EBV (2007)" I discovered that the HLA system is intricately involved in Hodgkin lymphoma susceptibility, pathogenesis and prognosis and published these findings in the Lancet and Journal of Clinical Oncology. I secured three Dutch Cancer Society grants to do functional follow-up studies on these findings. My areas of expertise are: immunology, tumor cell biology, association studies and molecular diagnostics in pathology.

In addition, I am a program leader within the Cancer Research Center Groningen, the chair of the local ethical committee of the UMCG Pathology department and the chair of the national HOVON pathology facility (HOP). International activities include chairing the translational research workstream of the Lymphoma group of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancers (EORTC), chairing the Pathology Working group and being a coordinating committee member of the Interlymph consortium, a secretary function in the dutch working group hematopathology and authoring multiple editions of the WHO tumour classifications. 

Research funding is partly from Takeda, in the context of a minimal residual disease consortium in Hodgkin lymphoma and for translational research in Hodgkin lymphoma clinical trials. EUSA pharma funds participation in an advisory board on Castleman's disease.