My husband was just diagnosed with lymphoma. Does anyone know much about this.?

Question

I would like to know what treatment options are and is this cureable. What about life expectancy?

Answer 1

Low-Grade Lymphoma
These grow so slowly that patients can live for many years mostly without symptoms, although some may experience pain from an enlarged lymph gland. After five to 10 years, low-grade disorders begin to progress rapidly to become aggressive or high-grade and produce more severe symptoms.

Intermediate-Grade Lymphoma
This type progresses fairly rapidly without treatment. With treatment, remission can be induced in between 50 to 75% of cases. Initial treatment has been so successful that people who stay in remission for three years after diagnosis are often considered cured. Stage I disorders are treated with radiotherapy.

High-Grade Lymphoma
Without treatment, these can progress rapidly regardless of stage. They are treated aggressively. With treatment, between 50 to 75% of patients enter remission. Those who stay in remission one year can look forward to a life free from recurrence. Treatment consists of intensive combination chemotherapy, which is sometimes supplemented with radiation therapy. Drug regimens used are determined by a number of factors, the most important being tissue study.

Types of Lymphomas
Based on the course of disease and the kind of lymphocytes affected, lymphomas are divided into two types: Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.


Hodgkin's Disease
About 75% of those diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease recover fully. About 90% of all people diagnosed with early-stage illness and more than 50% of those with more advanced stage are now living longer than 10 years with no signs of the disease coming back. The stage of the disease at diagnosis is critical in planning treatments. Sometimes giving the patient aggressive chemotherapy and then introducing young cells from the bone marrow (bone marrow transplantation) may increase chances of the patient living longer. A bone marrow transplant should be considered for every patient whose disease comes back after undergoing chemotherapy.

Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma
In the last 10 years, this disease has become easier to treat as more procedures are found to be effective. Overall, 50 to 60% of patients with NHL now live five years or longer without a recurrence. While a number of factors determine the best treatment for these disorders, the most significant is tissue classification followed by determination of the disease's stage.

Symptoms
In most cases, patients consult their doctors if they have painless swelling in the neck, armpits, groin or abdomen. Sometimes the swelling or the tumor occur in other organs, such as the skin or stomach (extranodal lymphoma) either as a first symptom or a sign appearing later in the disease. Like most cancers, lymphoma is best treated when found early. Symptoms are:

Loss of appetite
Loss of weight, nausea, vomiting, indigestion or pain in the abdomen
A feeling of bloating
Itching, bone pain, headaches, constant coughing and abnormal pressure and congestion in the face, neck and upper chest
Fatigue and flu-like body aches
Fatigue resulting from anemia
Night sweats, recurring high-grade fever or constant low-grade fever
Radiotherapy is the preferred treatment for patients with stage I or II lymphomas because it successfully induces long-term remissions and even cures in many cases. For treatment of stage III or IV low-grade disorders, one school of thought is to start intensive therapy right after diagnosis - whether a patient has symptoms or not - to achieve and maintain complete remission. Treatment usually consists of high-dose radiotherapy, chemotherapy or a combination of both. Intensive treatment involves risk, but recent studies suggest that such treatment may induce high rates of remission.

Bone marrow transplant is currently being studied as a treatment option for low-grade lymphoma.

Answer 2

There are many tupes of lymphomas: Hodgkins vs Non Hodgkins, Low, medium or high grade and all of them have stages. Prognosis depends on all these things.
My father had lymphoma 10 years ago and got in remission with radiation and is disease free since.
Most lympomas are treatable if not curable...most have good prognosis....some are fatal expecialy the ones associated with AIDS!
Best find a good hematooncologist and get started on treatment. Lympoma is a better cancer to have than lung, breast or leukemia.
Good Luck.

Answer 3

Lymphoma- A benign tumour of lymphatic tissue. Malignant lymphoma has been proposed as an alternative name for the reticuloses, since other tumours, derived like the reticulo-endothelial system from the embryonic mesoderm, are frequently involved.

Answer 4

The previous writer was lucky and optimistic. Some forms respond to treatment and others do not. The more primitive the form the worse the prognosis. Did you notice the course of Jackie Kennedy's reticulum cell tumor?

Answer 5

There are two main types of lymphoma in humans: Hodgkin's Disease (characterized by the growth of Reed-Sternberg cells in the cancer) and the Non-Hodgkin's Lymphomas.

Here is a chart to tell you the differences between the two.

Answer 6

I have given the most useful sites about lymphoma below you will find all the information you need on these sites.
I hope all the information is helpful to you !
Take Care and God Bless you and your family !