Lymph node detection and quantitative analysis are very important for cancer staging and treatment effectiveness assessment. To date, the detection and assessment of lymph nodes are mainly based on 3D CT images and performed manually by the clinicians. In recent years, the automated detection algorithms with the techniques of computer and image processing have received a great deal of attention. Based on the analysis of the spatial distribution characteristics and image features of lymph nodes, this paper reviews on lymph node detection algorithms from the aspects of the determination of regions of interest, detection of lymph node candidates and reduction of false positives at first. Then the performances of different lymph node detection algorithms are compared. And the development of automated lymph node detection algorithm is analyzed from the detection regions, prior knowledge utilization, lymph node types, and etc.