This volume is intended to present an eclectic selection of informative reviews on aspects of the malignant lymphomas, including Hodgkin's disease. The choice of suitable review topics in this field is made hazardous by several facts. First, the growth of insight into basic mechanisms of lymphomagenesis is explosive, as is the expansion of our understanding of the need for precise morphologic classification of these diseases. Second, new therapeutic agents, cytotoxic and biologic, as well as new drug delivery strategies, are appearing with remarkable frequency. Finally, old standard approaches, such as the staging laparotomy for Hodgkin's disease, are being reconsidered and deserve attention in an up-to-date collection of papers. The 10 reviews presented here fall generally into three categories. First, the optimal diagnostic and therapeutic approaches to Hodgkin's disease are considered by Mark Leibenhaut, who reviews the status of the diagnostic staging laparotomy, and by Philip Bierman, who discusses his thoughts on the timing of high-dose treatment with bone marrow transplantation for this disease. There follow four reviews of current management of specific histologic subtypes of malignant lymphoma. First, Velasquez reviews prognostic factors in both intermediate and high grade lymphomas. Miller and Dahlberg review and update the Southwest Oncology Group experience in developing curative cytotoxic combination therapies for diffuse large-cell lymphomas. Lastly, optimal therapy for two kinds of high grade lymphoma are presented. Butler and Hainsworth describe the Vanderbilt experience with diffuse small noncleaved cell lymphoma and Picozzi reviews lymphoblastic lymphoma.