[Progress due to networking structures. Challenges for the Competence Network Malignant Lymphomas in the Era of...

The Competence Network Malignant Lymphomas (KML), founded in 1999 at the initiative of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), brings together interdisciplinary medical and scientific expertise in research on malignant lymphomas. The network helps to release synergies in evidence-based clinical research and contributes to the accelerated transfer of advances in knowledge gained from therapeutic studies for the health care of lymphoma patients. During the regular BMBF funding period (1999-2009) individual sub-projects were hived off, such as the Cochrane Haematological Malignancies Group (CHMG) or the Scientific Institute of Haematologists and Oncologists in Private Practice (WINHO GmbH). At the end of BMBF funding, pivotal KML projects such as the reference diagnostic panel for KML lymphoma study groups, site management support, health care management and the information and communication section could be continued in the scientific association "Kompetenznetz Maligne Lymphome e. V." which was founded in 2005. Due to the recent in-depth understanding of the molecular and genetic mechanisms of lymphomagenesis and the consequent transformation to precision medicine targeting specialised groups of patients, the KML is currently facing the challenge of developing modern study, health-care and information concepts in ever shorter periods of time.