[How to progress in the histopathological classification of malignant non-Hodgkin's lymphomas]

Classifications of malignant lymphomas (ML) are aimed at separating different morphological entities that can be recognized by histopathologists and anatomico-clinical entities that are useful to clinicians. With these classifications, entities with different proliferative and disseminating potential can be distinguished, and the effects of treatment on the various types of ML can be compared. The advances expected in the near future will be due to techniques which are already known and will provide information on the proliferative power of lymphoma cells, on the significance of chromosomal abnormalities, on hyperexpression of certain cytokines or expression of certain adhesion molecules, and on the role played by the presence of the genome of some viruses in tumoral cells. Yet the most important advances in this field will perhaps be due to hitherto unknown techniques or to not yet imaginable new research lines.