Treatment FAQ

what is the treatment for follicular lymphoma

by Mrs. Mina Kuhic IV Published 3 years ago Updated 2 years ago
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FL is generally very responsive to radiation and chemotherapy. Radiation alone can provide a long-lasting remission in some patients with limited disease. In more advanced stages, physicians may use one or more chemotherapy drugs or the monoclonal antibody rituximab (Rituxan
Rituxan
Rituximab is a chimeric monoclonal antibody against the protein CD20, which is primarily found on the surface of immune system B cells. When it binds to this protein it triggers cell death. Rituximab was approved for medical use in 1997. It is on the World Health Organization's List of Essential Medicines.
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Rituximab
), alone or in combination with other agents.

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Common combination regimens include: R-Bendamustine (rituximab and bendamustine) R-CHOP (rituximab, cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine, and prednisone) R-CVP (rituximab, cyclophosphamide, vincristine, and prednisone)

How long can someone live with Stage 4 lymphoma?

Radiotherapy For patients with early-stage FL, the first course of follicular lymphoma treatment is often receiving involved-field radiation, or radiotherapy. Often, for stage I or II patients, radiation is all that is required and is enough to put their disease into remission for a significant amount of time before they require further treatment.

Can follicular lymphoma be cured?

Radiotherapy Radiotherapy, or specifically involved-field radiation therapy (IFRT), is considered standard treatment for follicular lymphoma that is found while still in the early stages, such as stage I or stage II.

What are some alternative treatments for lymphoma?

May 19, 2020 · MD Anderson researchers are also testing CAR T cell therapy as a follicular lymphoma treatment. 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.

What is the survival rate for follicular lymphoma?

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What is the first treatment for follicular lymphoma?

Your follicular lymphoma journey begins with initial treatment. As initial treatment—RITUXAN, with CVP chemotherapy, may be given to treat follicular lymphoma. These drugs work together in different ways to fight cancer. The goal in using this combination of drugs is to keep your cancer from getting worse.

Can you cure follicular lymphoma?

Although follicular lymphoma usually can't be cured, you can live long and well with it. This cancer grows slowly. You may not need treatment for many years, or ever.Nov 19, 2020

What is the latest treatment for follicular lymphoma?

The newest drug to be approved by the FDA for follicular lymphoma is Copiktra (duvelisib), an oral drug that targets PI3K-alpha, a protein that is overexpressed in many B-cell cancers, including follicular lymphoma, and encourages the growth of cancerous cells.

What is the survival rate for follicular lymphoma?

The survival rate for follicular lymphoma at five years (that is, the percentage of patients who will be alive 5 years after diagnosis) is 80-90% and median survival is approximately 10-12 years. People with stage I follicular lymphoma may be able to be cured with radiation therapy.Jan 5, 2021

Can you 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.Aug 13, 2021

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 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.May 9, 2017

Can you live 40 years with follicular lymphoma?

Lobetti-Bodoni et al18 studied 153 follicular lymphoma patients <40 years in comparison with 850 patients >40 years, and found that younger patients had longer overall survival and longer cause-specific survival.Apr 19, 2013

What are the symptoms of follicular lymphoma?

The most common first sign of follicular lymphoma is a painless swelling in the lymph nodes of the neck, armpit or groin. Other symptoms may include loss of appetite and tiredness, shortness of breath and generalised unexplained aches and pains.Jul 2, 2020

Does follicular lymphoma spread?

Follicular lymphoma spreads through a person's lymphatic system, which is part of the immune system. In follicular lymphoma, white blood cells start multiplying abnormally. White blood cells are also known as B cells or B lymphocytes.Sep 17, 2021

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%.

Which is worse Non Hodgkins or Hodgkins?

Is Hodgkin's worse than non-Hodgkin's lymphoma? The progression of Hodgkin's lymphoma is typically more predictable than that of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. The prognosis of Hodgkin's lymphoma is also better than that of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma since non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is often diagnosed at a more advanced stage.Aug 24, 2021

Radiotherapy

For patients with early-stage FL, the first course of follicular lymphoma treatment is often receiving involved-field radiation, or radiotherapy. Often, for stage I or II patients, radiation is all that is required and is enough to put their disease into remission for a significant amount of time before they require further treatment.

Chemotherapy and Immunotherapy

For some patients, chemotherapy is the first-line treatment for FL. Some of the regimens used include:

Watch and Wait

Also known as watchful waiting, the ' watch and wait ' option makes reference to giving the patient no direct treatments at all—rather, they simply keep an eye on the progress of their follicular lymphoma, and when the disease becomes symptomatic, then other treatment options are applied.

Combination Follicular Lymphoma Treatment

Because FL is an indolent disease, it is uncommon for FL patients to die from this cancer.

What is the treatment for follicular lymphoma?

Radiotherapy, or specifically involved-field radiation therapy (IF RT), is considered standard treatment for follicular lymphoma that is found while still in the early stages, such as stage I or stage II. Radiotherapy may also be used at other times if the patient is diagnosed with B symptoms, specifically with so-called 'bulky disease', which means the disease has formed something of a tumor. In some cases, radiotherapy is used to shrink the tumor and provide palliative care if the tumor is causing problems.

What is RIT for lymphoma?

One of the better innovations to come along for the lymphoma community in recent years is the development and approval of radioimmunotherapy, or RIT. This is most commonly administered as the Zevalin therapeutic regimen. Zevalin is the first RIT to be FDA-approved as a first-line therapy against FL. Zevalin—and Bexxar, a similar regimen—work by attaching radioactive isotopes to the monoclonal antibody rituximab, allowing the antibody to deliver to the cancerous B-cells a deadly radioactive payload. It can be considered something of a targeted radiation treatment in that it only radiates specific lymphocytes.

Can you have autologous stem cells in follicular lymphoma?

Autologous or allogeneic stem cell transplantations are not common in follicular lymphoma. Because of the seriousness of this procedure, it is reserved as second-line consolidation therapy and rarely if ever is it used in induction treatment.

Is rituximab a single agent?

The immunotherapy rituximab can be used either as a single-agent in the first-line treatment of follicular lymphoma, or in combination with chemotherapy regimens, or it can be used in a maintenance setting, where the patient has received induction treatment and then receives an infusion of rituximab over the course of a couple of years.

Is there a cure for follicular lymphoma?

The process involves training the body's own immune system to recognize the cancer. If approved by the FDA, BiovaxID will be the first therapeutic vaccine for follicular lymphoma patients. It does not offer a cure —none of the treatments do—but clinical trials suggest a substantially longer time-to-next-treatment with BiovaxID than current modalities.

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.

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Slow Growing, But Difficult to Cure Completely

Treatment Depends in Part on Staging

Approach to Treatment

  • Oftentimes, FL is slow growing and lacks aggressive characteristics. Both the decision to treat as well as the first-line treatment of choice may be influenced by a number of factors, including a person's candidacy for clinical trials, overall health and the manner of presentation of the disease. Specific preferred treatments may vary for different individuals and for different kinds of FL -- an…
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How Is The Treatment decided?

  • Treatment is decided based on a number of different factors, including the goal of treatment and the presence of symptoms from the disease. Guidelines from the National Comprehensive Cancer Network offer a number of different approaches to the treatment of FL at varying stages, however, different practices may be followed at different institutions, and patient wishes and goals are als…
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What About Gazyva For Follicular Lymphoma?

  • Gazyva is a monoclonal antibody receiving attention for its use in FL. “People with follicular lymphoma whose disease returns or worsens despite treatment with a Rituxan-containing regimen need more options because the disease becomes more difficult to treat each time it comes back,” said Sandra Horning, M.D., Genentech's chief medical officer and ...
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