The series of volumes Progress in Surgical Pathology was conceived in an attempt to honor the 70th birthday of Dr. Raffaele Lattes. The original vol­ umes were the result of an initial call for papers dedicated to progress in the field of surgical pathology with contributors from all over the world. The pa­ pers published in these volumes have represented examples of classical clin­ ical pathologic correlations within the discipline of surgical pathology; other papers reflect the work being done at the interface between classical diagnos­ tic surgical pathology and research in the realm of immunology, molecular biology, cell biology, etc. These papers illustrate what is possible utilizing all of the advances made in basic biology, while remembering that the patholo­ gist remains an essential, crucial figure in the analysis of tissues, both with respect to their diagnosis as weil as the analysis of the dynamic interactions between cells. There have also been papers that may be characterized as philosophical or historical, which Iook at aspects of surgical pathology in a unique way. Five volumes have been published since 1980. The last of these was pub­ lished in 1983. For those of you who have been our loyal readers, you may wonder why there has been a gap in the publication of these volumes. This has been due to reorganization both among ourselves as weil as with the pub­ lisher.