Times not to forget radiotherapy when treating patients with lymphoma

Radiation therapy remains an important component of lymphoma treatment. It has evolved with improvements in technology and a better understanding of how to successfully integrate it into lymphoma treatment. There are specific clinical presentations where omission of radiation therapy could adversely affect patient outcome and should not be overlooked. Radiation therapy may serve an important role as primary treatment, as a component of combined modality therapy, as adjuvant therapy to maximize local control, and as an important component of salvage therapy for relapsed or primary refractory lymphoma and in the successful palliation of lymphoma. This review identifies those clinical presentations where the use of radiation therapy should not be overlooked or should at least be considered.