[The progress in treatment for malignant lymphomas and the future direction]

The prognosis of patients with malignant lymphoma was improved with the development of multi-agent chemotherapy, radiotherapy and monoclonal antibody. Half of aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphomas which were previously considered to be incurable, are able to achieve cure after appropriate treatment. Furthermore, natural history of indolent B-cell lymphoma was improved by the introduction of anti-CD20 monoclonal antibody. Because Hodgkin lymphoma is one of the most favorable prognosis among adult malignancies, current studies focus on a reduction of acute and late toxicity by decreasing treatment intensity. On the other hand, there has been tremendous advances in the pathology, biology and molecular characterization of lymphomas. As a result, novel molecular targeted agents have been developed in recent years. The treatment for malignant lymphoma is currently undergoing a paradigm shift away from conventional chemotherapy toward molecular targeted agents based on the biological understanding.