Patients with more cancerous lymph nodes have a life expectancy of about 13 months. Those with minor lymph node involvement often live more than two years. Surgery may not be an option for some stage 3B patients even if cancer has not spread to the lymph nodes.
What is the survival rate when cancer spreads to the lymph nodes? This will depend on the type of cancer, the treatment available, and other factors. For people with breast cancer, the 5-year survival rate when cancer is only in the breast is 99% . If cancer spreads to the lymph nodes, the rate is 86%.
"In general, cancers that have spread to the lymph nodes are typically stage 2 or 3," says Juan Santamaria, MD, Nebraska Medicine surgical oncologist. "Many of these cancers are still treatable and even curable at this stage.
Overall clinical recurrence-free survival at 5, 10 and 15 years was 80%, 65% and 58%, respectively. Patients who had 1 or 2 positive lymph nodes had a clinical recurrence-free survival of 70% and 73% at 10 years, respectively, vs 49% in those who had 5 or more involved lymph nodes (p = 0.0031).
To metastasize, cancer cells break off from the primary tumor and travel through the blood or lymph to other organs. If someone is found to have cancer in their lymph nodes, it's usually a bad sign that the cancer has or will soon spread to other parts of the body.
stage 3 – the cancer is larger and may have spread to the surrounding tissues and/or the lymph nodes (or "glands", part of the immune system) stage 4 – the cancer has spread from where it started to at least 1 other body organ, also known as "secondary" or "metastatic" cancer.
Stage 4 lymphoma is when cancer has spread to at least one body organ outside the lymphatic system, such as the spinal cord, lungs, bones, or liver.
Treatment for cancer in the lymph nodes
Other treatment options for cancer in the lymph nodes may include chemotherapy, radiation therapy, a stem cell transplant, immunotherapy or targeted therapy. There's a higher risk for cancer to come back following surgery when a cancer has spread to lymph nodes.
The five-year relative survival rate for stage 4 lymphoma varies and ranges from 57% to 86% based on the type you have.
Aggressive lymphomas grow and spread quickly, and usually need to be treated right away. The most common type of aggressive lymphoma in the United States is diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL). Some types of lymphoma, like mantle cell lymphoma, don't fit neatly into either of these categories.
Removing cancerous lymph nodes can help keep a cancer from spreading further or coming back. But it can sometimes result in lymphedema, a condition where lymph fluid backs up in the part of the body where a node used to be.
Lymphoma is very treatable, and the outlook can vary depending on the type of lymphoma and its stage. Your doctor can help you find the right treatment for your type and stage of the illness. Lymphoma is different from leukemia. Each of these cancers starts in a different type of cell.
Sensitivity: Some people think cancer always hurts, but that's not true. Tenderness tends to be a sign of an infectious process, because the immune system has been challenged. But lymph nodes that are swollen due to lymphoma are usually not painful.
The disease can develop either as a slow-growing or an aggressive and fast-growing lymphoma, but each can be highly curable especially when detected and treated at an early stage. Numerous factors are considered before developing a treatment plan for NHL.
When cancer is advanced, it means that it can't be cured. Doctors might also say that the illness is terminal. This means that it is likely to cause death within a limited period. How long is difficult to predict, but it could be weeks to several months.
Stage III-IV lymphomas are common, still very treatable, and often curable, depending on the NHL subtype. Stage III and stage IV are now considered a single category because they have the same treatment and prognosis.
In practice, most people with high grade NHL have treatment as if it is an advanced cancer. This usually means quite intensive chemotherapy treatment with 3 or 4 different drugs, over 6 to 8 months.
Although the overall prognosis may be poor based on cases with previous patients and older treatments, many patients with stage 4 cancer can live for years. A few factors to keep in mind: Many treatments are available to help fight cancer. The body's response to treatment may differ from that of others.
The lymph nodes are examined under a microscope to see if there are any cancer cells in them. The risk of the cancer coming back may be higher if the nearby lymph nodes contain cancer cells. Your doctor may suggest you have more treatment after surgery to reduce this risk.
Chemotherapy can be used at any stage of cancer, from IA/IB to IV. The nature of chemo varies according to the type of cancer the patient has. Doctors may recommend that breast cancer patients receive chemotherapy if they find early-stage tumors in the lymph nodes.
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma is usually treated with chemotherapy or radiotherapy, although some people may not need treatment straight away. In a few cases, if the initial cancer is very small and can be removed during a biopsy, no further treatment may be needed.
Stage 3 cancer means the breast cancer has extended to beyond the immediate region of the tumor and may have invaded nearby lymph nodes and muscles, but has not spread to distant organs. Although this stage is considered to be advanced, there are a growing number of effective treatment options.
Patients with stage 3 mesothelioma may have varying degrees of lymph node involvement. Patients with more cancerous lymph nodes have a life expectancy of about 13 months. Those with minor lymph node involvement often live more than two years.
Stage IV. This stage means that the cancer has spread to other organs or parts of the body. It may be also called advanced or metastatic cancer.