The pathologist's role in management of patients with Hodgkin's disease

The pathologist's role in the management of patients with Hodgkin's disease may be summarized as follows: (a) to establish a firm diagnosis of Hodgkin's disease; (b) to recognize the value of the Lukes-Butler classification in histologic diagnosis as well as its limitations as a prognostic indicator in patients undergoing modern therapy; (c) to carefully examine and identify all sites of involvement in staging laparotomy material; and (d) to prepare tissues for appropriate histopathologic studies and for new techniques in the investigation of Hodgkin's disease. The pathologist should demand of his or her technician optimal histopathologic sections since technical artifacts frequently compound diagnostic problems. Poor-quality sections clearly constitute one of the major obstacles to the diagnosis and subclassification of Hodgkin's disease and allied disorders.