Table of Contents
Treatment Options
The main treatments for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma are:
- Radiation therapy
- Chemotherapy
- Biologic therapy (immunotherapy)
- Stem cell or bone marrow transplantation
In early stages of lymphoma, doctors may recommend watchful waiting where treatment is delayed until symptoms appear or worsen. Treatment for lymphomas generally uses chemotherapy (particularly intensive regimens using several drugs) or a combination of chemotherapy and radiation. Monoclonal antibody biologic drugs, (a treatment approach also called immunotherapy), are now being used more frequently in combination with chemotherapy drugs. Transplantation is mainly used to treat patients who relapse or who are in remission. Surgery is not a usual treatment option.
Patients may also wish to consider enrolling in a clinical trial that tests new and experimental drugs or treatments.
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Click the icon to see an illustrated series detailing bone marrow transplant surgery. |
Assessing Treatment Success
In assessing the success of a clinical trial, doctors often refer to the tumor response. A complete response, for example, means that there is no longer any evidence at all of the disease by examination, blood tests, or x-ray studies. It does not necessarily mean, however, that the disease is cured. It may still recur later on.
In judging the success of a treatment for NHL, the most important criteria are overall survival and the duration of time until the disease progresses or the patient dies.
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Review Date: 01/27/2011
Reviewed By: Harvey Simon, MD, Editor-in-Chief, Associate Professor of Medicine,
Harvard Medical School; Physician, Massachusetts General Hospital.
Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M.,
Inc.
A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission (www.urac.org)
