Which staging for malignant lymphomas?

The appropriate staging for malignant lymphomas continuous to be a matter of debate. In Hodgkin's disease the relative merits of different non-surgical procedures are becoming evident. Nevertheless some authors still advocate staging laparotomy with splenectomy in almost all patients up to stage III A disease. This procedure, however, seems already now questionable in many subsets of patients, which are in the process of being clearly defined. In spite of the complex nature of non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, our current knowledge permits adapting the staging to the characteristics of the individual patients and to the therapeutic plan.