Preface

Lymphoma—both Hodgkin's and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma—is a widely discussed medical topic in numerous research and clinical publications with respect to the diagnosis, classification, treatment, and overall management of these entities. In the United States alone, over 60,000 patients were expected to present with newly diagnosed lymphoma in 2005. New diagnostic modalities have been developed over the past few decades for assessment of these types of malignancy. Breakthrough treatment options have been discovered and are currently undergoing clinical trials.

Today, lymphoma is, to a large extent, a curable disease, with significantly better prognosis for most of the histologic types compared with 30 years ago. Due to prolonged time to progression, disease-free or overall survival, as well as to a higher incidence of aggressive subtypes, increasing numbers of lymphoma patients are seeking repeat medical evaluation and are being referred to noninvasive procedures assessing the state of their disease.

For many years, nuclear medicine has played a significant role in the evaluation of lymphoma patients throughout the course of their disease. The general concept of nuclear medicine procedures as a functional indicator of the presence of viable tumor tissue and as a means of monitoring the success or resistance to treatment has evolved from the use of this imaging modality in lymphoma. Following a long period when CT was considered the mainstay of noninvasive diagnosis and assessment of lymphoma, the incremental value of the metabolic information provided by nuclear medicine procedures, and PET in particular, is now clearly established. The understanding of the advantages and limitations of structural and functional assessment of lymphoma has been a further step toward a change in the use of these diagnostic modalities. PET and CT are no longer considered competing tests, but rather complementary techniques. This recognition has cleared the way for the development of hybrid PET/CT imaging devices and their rapid, and almost unconditional acceptance by the imaging community and referring clinicians.

Lymphoma is still a challenging field, both in terms of diagnosis and therapeutic options. In this issue of the Positron Emission Tomography Clinics, a multidisciplinary panel of experts has reviewed the current state-of-the-art and accepted guidelines for imaging and clinical management of lymphoma. We extend our thanks to all these contributors for their hard work and commitment.

Although it was stated over 2000 years ago that the gift of prophecy is given only to fools and young children, it may be speculated (or even predicted) that some of the new information presented by our esteemed colleagues in this issue will be considered common knowledge or even appear obsolete within the next few years, as has happened to groundbreaking studies published only a few decades ago. Laying one brick over another, for use by the next generation of open-minded researchers, is what makes our work in the field demanding, intriguing, and rewarding.