After a diagnosis of lymphoma Talk with your doctor about different treatment options including likely outcomes, potential side effects and risks and benefits. It is up to you how involved you want to be in decisions about treatment so ask for as much treatment as you need.
First steps to take after a diagnosis:
Learn about the disease and treatment options. Find medical care that meets your needs. Understand the cost of care and what your insurance will cover. Maintain a copy of your medical records (paperwork, test results, and your own notes) – Download the Lymphoma Care Plan.
Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
In the past 10 years, this disease has become easier to treat as more procedures are found to be effective. Overall, 50 to 60 percent of patients with non-Hodgkin lymphoma now live five years or longer without a recurrence.
Lymphoma most often spreads to the liver, bone marrow, or lungs. 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.
Stage 4 lymphoma means that cancer has spread to an organ external to the lymphatic system. The survival rates vary widely depending on an individual's risk factors and type of cancer. The survival rate of stage 4 lymphoma is lower than that of the other stages, but doctors can cure the condition in some cases.
There is a chance that your treatment can increase the risk of getting another type of cancer in the future. This is because both chemotherapy drugs and radiotherapy work by damaging cells. They kill the lymphoma cells, but they can damage healthy cells too.
Most often, the treatment is chemotherapy (chemo), usually with a regimen of 4 drugs known as CHOP (cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone), plus the monoclonal antibody rituximab (Rituxan). This regimen, known as R-CHOP, is most often given in cycles 3 weeks apart.
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.
Blood tests are not used to diagnose lymphoma, but they can sometimes help determine how advanced the lymphoma is.
The staging system used for Hodgkin lymphoma is the Lugano classification, which is based on the older Ann Arbor system. It has 4 stages, labeled I, II, III, and IV. For limited stage (I or II) HL that affects an organ outside of the lymph system, the letter E is added to the stage (for example, stage IE or IIE).
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.
Other common non-Hodgkin lymphoma symptoms
Night sweats (often soaking the sheets) and/or chills. Persistent fatigue, lethargy, weakness. Loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting. Abdominal pain or swelling, or a feeling of fullness.
It takes time but most people adjust well to life after a diagnosis of lymphoma and find a 'new normal'. This might involve making some changes to your everyday life. In this section, you'll find information to help you live well with and beyond lymphoma.
Blastic NK cell lymphoma tends to grow very quickly and can be difficult to treat. It can start almost anywhere in the body.
Treatment options
Surgery isn't generally used to treat the condition, except for the biopsy used to diagnose it. Overall, treatment for Hodgkin lymphoma is highly effective and most people with the condition are eventually cured.
Lymphoplasmacytic lymphoma or Waldenstrom macroglobulinemia.
This is a rare, slow-growing type of lymphoma. It's found mainly in the bone marrow, lymph nodes, and spleen. This type of lymphoma can't be cured. But people can live with it for many years.
Burkitt lymphoma grows very rapidly, which means that symptoms usually develop quickly, over just a few days or weeks. The most common symptom is one or more lumps, which often develop in several parts of your body. These are swollen lymph nodes.
Treatment for many patients is chemotherapy (usually 2 to 4 cycles of the ABVD regimen), followed by radiation to the initial site of the disease (involved site radiation therapy, or ISRT). Another option is chemotherapy alone (usually for 3 to 6 cycles) in selected patients.
Hair loss is quite common in people who are treated with chemotherapy; overall, around 2 in 3 people experience hair loss. Chemotherapy kills lymphoma cells, but it can also destroy healthy cells, particularly those that normally divide quickly. Hair follicles produce hair.
Treatment for stage 1 Hodgkin lymphoma is usually 2 to 4 cycles of chemotherapy. You might also have radiotherapy.
The changes can be gradual, but crises can develop. People with NHL most often die from infections, bleeding or organ failure resulting from metastases.
Lymphoma is a cancer of the lymphatic system, which is part of the body's germ-fighting network. The lymphatic system includes the lymph nodes (lymph glands), spleen, thymus gland and bone marrow. Lymphoma can affect all those areas as well as other organs throughout the body.
The overall 5-year relative survival rate for people with NHL is 74%. But it's important to keep in mind that survival rates can vary widely for different types and stages of lymphoma.