during the last 20 years. Furthermore, it has led to a fatalistic attitude in the reasoning of many clinicians who feel that 'nothing works better than CHOP' and therefore that it is not worth testing new drugs or developing novel regimens. However, the process by which we move forward in the oncology field is seldom by dramatic breakthroughs. Frequently, what appears at first glance to be a breakthrough turns out later to be just a modest step forward. Several steps forward eventually add up to a major advance, but this advance goes unnoticed because of the slow nature of the process. In this volume, we have chosen to discuss several of these steps, which we feel are clearly making a positive impact on the field of lymphomas and which soon should make a major difference in therapeutic results.