Why publish a book on lymphoma in 2007? Surely there are sufficient reviews, meetings and published educational symposia to make such a work redundant. Furthermore, doesn't instant access to online information make any work in print out of date before it appears?

The editors and authors of this work think not. We firmly believe that there is still a place for a clear summary of the diagnosis, staging and therapy of lymphoma in a single volume that reflects the advances in these areas which have taken place over the past five years. The problem with the plethora of information now available is that it is rarely set in a framework of understanding of the major challenges which still face those involved with the diagnosis and therapy of non-Hodgkin's and Hodgkin's lymphomas. We, and our patients, are confronted with many facts but little judgment. This work is our modest attempt to rectify this.

Accordingly the layout of the book should enable the reader to gain an understanding of patterns of disease, methods of staging, principles of new approaches to therapy, and interpretation of clinical trials and prognostic markers by reading the first part of the book. In the second part the reader will find separate succinct yet comprehensive reviews of the individual disease entities which make up the spectrum of diseases comprising the lymphomas.