The progress of laboratory medicine and diagnostic procedures in lymphoma and its future prospects

: As for the lymphoma, the cell origin and the tumorigenic process are not unitary and the biological property of lymphoma is various. The cellular origin and the etiology of the lymphoma were gradually elucidated by immunological, cytogenetical and molecular biological progress. Recently the pathological classification of lymphoma was gathered in WHO-2008 classification. On the other hand, changes of the clinical staging system and the criteria of curative effects of lymphoma therapy depended on the progress of the diagnostic imaging especially the computed tomography (CT) and the 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography(FDG-PET). They were gathered in International Working Group (IWG)-2007 criteria. As for the diagnostic classification and the criteria of the curative effects of treatments, update and revision will be unavoidable with accumulation of proposal of new disease concepts and development of the laboratory procedure in future.