A staging of lymphomas: practical thoughts on impractical practices

Staging of lymphomas represents a discipline different from the staging of other cancers. In lymphomas, the purpose of staging rests more on the establishment of consistent standards by which we can evaluate changes in treatment programs, rather than a means of deciding on an appropriate treatment for an individual patient. In comparing treatments from different times and centers, one should exercise care to ensure the true comparability of the study groups. Frequently, errors are encountered in the comparison of surgical versus clinical staging. Other pitfalls occur when new, more sensitive diagnostic tests result in the clinical upstaging of selected groups leading to the improvement in subgroups but not affecting the treatment results for the group as a whole.