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Follicular lymphoma is a very slow-growing cancer that may appear in your lymph nodes, your bone marrow and other organs. There are ways to treat follicular lymphoma, but the condition often returns.
What is follicular lymphoma and how is it treated?
How long can you live with follicular lymphoma? Follicular lymphoma is a slow-growing condition that’s considered a chronic illness. Studies about half of all people diagnosed with follicular lymphoma are alive nearly 20 years after diagnosis. About 90% of people are alive five years after diagnosis.
How long can you live with follicular lymphoma?
Once a doctor diagnoses follicular lymphoma, they will want to know how advanced the cancer is, also known as its stage. Staging the cancer can help doctors plan a person’s treatment. Tests that doctors use in the staging process are the same as those used for diagnosis.
How is follicular lymphoma diagnosed and staged?
With this strategy, patients’ overall health and disease are monitored through regular checkup visits and various evaluations, such as laboratory and imaging tests. Active treatment is started if the patient begins to develop lymphoma-related symptoms or there are signs that the disease is progressing based on testing during follow-up visits.
What is the treatment strategy for lymphoma?
How long does it take to get treatment for lymphoma?
A short course of treatment usually takes about 6 to 12 weeks.
When is treatment needed for follicular lymphoma?
Active treatment is started if the patient begins to develop lymphoma-related symptoms or there are signs that the disease is progressing based on testing during follow-up visits. FL is generally very responsive to radiation and chemotherapy.
What is the chemo treatment for follicular lymphoma?
The treatment is usually given into a vein (intravenously). The most common chemotherapy drug combination for follicular lymphoma is CVP (cyclophosphamide, vincristine, and a steroid called prednisolone), or you may have a drug called bendamustine. Some people have other drug treatments.
What is the best treatment for follicular lymphoma?
Treatments: Early Stages If you have stage II follicular lymphoma with bulky or larger tumors, you may treat it with a monoclonal antibody, usually obinutuzumab (Gazyva) or rituximab (Rituxan), often along with chemotherapy. Depending on which lymph nodes are affected, you may then have a course of radiation therapy.
How long is chemotherapy for lymphoma?
The drugs circulate throughout the body in the bloodstream. A course of chemotherapy is made up of a number of cycles. You have treatment, usually over 1 to 3 days, depending on the particular combination of drugs. Then you have a break of a few weeks to allow your body to recover from the effects of the chemotherapy.
Can I live a long life with follicular lymphoma?
Follicular lymphoma is slow-growing cancer. People diagnosed with the disease may not find a cure but can still live for a long time with it. The five-year survival rate for follicular lymphoma is 80-90% with patients surviving for a median of 10-12 years.
Why did I get follicular lymphoma?
Doctors don't know what causes follicular and other non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. Unlike some cancers, they are not passed down in families. In some cases, radiation or cancer-causing chemicals, or certain infections, may be a cause. But other times there is no known cause.
Can you live 20 years with lymphoma?
Most people with indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma will live 20 years after diagnosis. Faster-growing cancers (aggressive lymphomas) have a worse prognosis. They fall into the overall five-year survival rate of 60%.
What is the prognosis for follicular lymphoma?
Outlook / Prognosis Follicular lymphoma is a slow-growing condition that's considered a chronic illness. Studies about half of all people diagnosed with follicular lymphoma are alive nearly 20 years after diagnosis. About 90% of people are alive five years after diagnosis.
How successful is chemo for follicular lymphoma?
Commonly used chemotherapy regimens for follicular lymphoma include rituximab (Rituxan; Genentech, Biogen) plus bendamustine or CHOP chemotherapy. In general, these combinations result in an overall response rate of 90%, with approximately 40% of patients achieving complete remission.
Is follicular lymphoma serious?
Follicular lymphoma is usually not considered to be curable, but more of a chronic disease. Patients can live for many years with this form of lymphoma.
How long does it take for follicular lymphoma to spread?
The second most common subtype of NHL, follicular lymphoma (FL), grows slowly, with lymph nodes doubling in size approximately every six to 12 months, and patients often get diagnosed a year or later after they first noted an enlarged lymph node.
How does follicular lymphoma therapy work?
The therapy reprograms a patient’s own immune cells to recognize and kill cancer. Most people with follicular lymphoma are treated to keep the lymphoma under control, rather than to cure it. The disease can usually be kept at bay for many years with several courses of treatment.
What type of lymphoma did Maribeth have?
A biopsy revealed Maribeth had follicular lymphoma, a type of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma that starts in the body’s immune system. Follicular lymphoma symptoms may include a lump in the armpit, neck or groin, caused by cancerous immune cells that build up in lymph nodes and cause swelling.
Is follicular lymphoma an advanced disease?
By this time, the disease has reached an advanced stage. “‘Advanced’ can sound sound alarming,” Lee says, “but most people with follicular lymphoma are at an advanced stage when they are diagnosed. There are many effective treatments for all stages of the disease, and these can usually control it for many years, even decades.”.
Does follicular lymphoma spread?
By the time follicular lymphoma is diagnosed, it has usually spread beyond the lymphatic system to other places in the body. Because it typically grows very slowly, the disease often is advanced by the time symptoms appear. Most people have no symptoms, and therefore don’t visit a doctor, which gives follicular lymphoma time to spread.
What is FL remission?
Since FL is generally characterized by multiple disease relapses after responses to a variety of treatments , patients in remission should have regular visits with a physician who is familiar with their medical history and the treatments they have received.
Can a treatment cause long term effects?
Some treatments can cause long-term effects or late effects, which can vary based on duration and frequency of treatments, age, gender, and the overall health of each patient at the time of treatment. A physician will check for these effects during follow-up care.
Duodenal-type follicular lymphoma
Duodenal-type follicular lymphoma was first recognized in the World Health Organization’s classification update in 2016. Some people refer to it as primary gastrointestinal follicular lymphoma. It is a very slow-growing follicular lymphoma that starts in the small intestine, usually in one portion of the duodenum.
Pediatric-type follicular lymphoma
Pediatric-type follicular lymphoma is a very rare form of follicular lymphoma that arises in the head and neck lymph nodes. It mostly affects children but can also affect adults.
How long is chemo treatment for lymphoma?
A typical treatment regimen involves taking tablets daily for two weeks followed by two weeks’ break, and repeating this pattern for about six months. Some people we spoke to were treated with a combination of tablet and intravenous chemotherapy.
How long does it take for lymphoma to cure?
Treatment usually lasts about six months. To treat slow-growing follicular lymphoma, your doctor may start by prescribing rituximab and chemotherapy drugs.
What is the survival rate for Stage 1 lymphoma?
For stage I NHL, the 5-year survival rate is more than 83%. For stage II the 5-year survival rate is close to 76% and for stage III it is more than 70%. For stage IV NHL, the 5-year survival rate is around 63%. These survival rates vary depending on the cancer’s stage and subtype.
What was your first lymphoma symptom?
The best way to find HL early is to be on the lookout for possible symptoms. The most common symptom is enlargement or swelling of one or more lymph nodes, causing a lump or bump under the skin which usually doesn’t hurt. It’s most often on the side of the neck, in the armpit, or in the groin.
Can you live 20 years with lymphoma?
Most people with indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma will live 20 years after diagnosis. Faster-growing cancers (aggressive lymphomas) have a worse prognosis. They fall into the overall five-year survival rate of 60%.
How many chemo sessions are needed for lymphoma?
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.
How successful is chemotherapy for lymphoma?
Usually chemotherapy works very well for most people with Hodgkin lymphoma. But sometimes the lymphoma may not completely respond to the treatment. If this happens it can still be treated successfully. Your doctor may talk to you about having more intensive chemotherapy with a stem cell transplant.
Maintenance Therapy
This is a treatment you can get once you're in remission. Maintenance therapy involves taking medicines to kill any cancer cells that are still in your body. It helps to keep you in remission for longer.
Follow-Up Visits
After you finish treatment, your doctor will tell you what comes next. Together, you'll create a care plan that will include regular checkups to monitor your health and cancer status.
How long can you wait to get treatment for NHL?
"About half of all patients can put off treatment for at least 3 years," Abetti says. "Some patients can be in watch-and-wait mode for 10 years or more .". It's possible you'll never need treatment.
How often should I have a checkup?
If you choose to delay treatment, your doctor will keep a close eye on you and look for changes. You'll have checkups every 3-6 months, or even more often . The major benefit of watch and wait is that you don't have to deal with treatment side effects, Tsai says.
Can you wait to see a doctor for lymphoma?
Also, if you aren't very good about visiting your doctor, watch and wait may not be a good choice. If you wait too long to set up an appointment, your lymphoma may get worse. Pagination. 1.
Can you wait to get treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma?
It's an approach called "watch and wait," and it might be a choice for you if you don't have any pain or other symptoms. Your doctor will keep a close eye on your disease, and they won't start treatment ...
Can you wait to see your doctor if you have a slow growing NHL?
Also, if you aren't very good about visiting your doctor, watch and wait may not be a good choice.