In 1944 the Swedish physician Jan Gösta Waldenström (1906-1996) reported two patients, displaying symptoms of oronasal bleeding, lymphadenopathy, anemia, thrombocytopenia, increased erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and an abnormal serum protein of high molecular weight.1,2 The absence of bone pain, lack of lytic bone lesions on radiographs and the presence of an excess of lymphoid cells in bone marrow, made him understand that this disease entity was different from multiple myeloma, in which lytic bone lesions are common and bone marrow is infiltrated by plasma cells. To this day, his original description of clinical characteristics and laboratory abnormalities still forms the basis of the diagnosis of a distinct clinicopathologic entity, which bears his name, Waldenström macroglobulinemia.

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Stichting Stimulans, J.E. Jurriaanse Stichting, Novartis Pharma B.V., Servier Nederland B.V., Merck Sharp & Dohme B.V., Genzyme Nederland, Ortho Biotech, Roche Nederland B.V., Celgene B.V., LEO Pharma B.V., Schering-Plough B.V., GlaxoSmithKline, Novo Nordisk B.V., Lilly Nederland B.V., Sanofi-Aventis Netherlands B.V.
B. Löwenberg (Bob) , P. Sonneveld (Pieter)
Erasmus University Rotterdam
hdl.handle.net/1765/13519
Erasmus MC: University Medical Center Rotterdam

Schop, R. F. J. (2008, October 15). Studies on the Genetic Characterization of Waldenström Macroglobulinemia. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1765/13519