Classical Hodgkins Lymphoma?

Question

A family member just got diagnosed with it,
is there anyone out there that has been diagnosed and
got treatment for it? What type of treatment? and what is the successes rate?

Answer 1

I am 25 and 5 months into chemo for Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I was diagnosed in stage I, bulky disease (size of softball in chest) with symptoms (including night sweats, fatigue).

I am receiving AVBD therapy, which will be finished in 1 month. After that I'll receive radiation.

My body is responding very well to the treatment and my tumor is half the size it was before. The remaining tissue is likely dead and the radiation should ablate what is left. The biggest complication I've had so far is from one of the chemo drugs (the "B"), which had damaged some of my lung tissue. However, we're trying to correct that now.

Hodgkins is a highly curable disease now. The doctors' new challenge is to balance the curability of the disease (with toxic chemo and radiation) with the quality of life afterwards (including managing long term side effects from those drugs). My doctor routinely tells me that cure rates are in the 90th percentile, although each person presents differently.

One of the things I've been very strongly advised about is that I will need continued care for the rest of my life. I need to be routinely screened for recurrence of the disease, as well as some of the toxic side effects from my treatment (including heart disease, lung damage, secondary cancers, etc). But I'm excited and optomistic about what my future holds...in all it glory :)

Answer 2

I had that in 2005. I went through chemo and radiation.

A friend of mine works on new medicine for cancer. He told me if you have to get a cancer, Hodgkins Lymphoma is the best to get. I didn't think it was funny or true then, since I'm still alive and had a baby 7 weeks ago, I guess I really am doing okay now.

A lot of it does depend on when it's caught. Mine was caught sort of early.

Answer 3

http://www.cancer.gov/cancerinfo/types/hodgkinslymphoma

this website will go a long way to answering your questions.