Adult Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Treatment (Professional)
General Information About Adult Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (NHL)
The NHLs are a heterogeneous group of lymphoproliferative malignancies with differing patterns of behavior and responses to treatment.
Like Hodgkin lymphoma, NHL usually originates in lymphoid tissues and can spread to other organs. NHL, however, is much less predictable than Hodgkin lymphoma and has a far greater predilection to disseminate to extranodal sites. The prognosis depends on the histologic type, stage, and treatment.
Incidence and Mortality
Estimated new cases and deaths from NHL in the United States in 2013:
NHL usually originates in lymphoid tissues.
Prognosis and Survival
The NHLs can be divided into two prognostic groups: the indolent lymphomas and the aggressive lymphomas.
Indolent NHL types have a relatively good prognosis with a median survival as long as 10 to 20 years, but they usually are not curable in advanced clinical stages. Early-stage (stage I and stage II) indolent NHL can be effectively treated with radiation therapy alone. Most of the indolent types are nodular (or follicular) in morphology.
The aggressive type of NHL has a shorter natural history, but a significant number of these patients can be cured with intensive combination chemotherapy regimens.
In general, with modern treatment of patients with NHL, overall survival at 5 years is over 60%. Of patients with aggressive NHL, more than 50% can be cured. The vast majority of relapses occur in the first 2 years after therapy. The risk of late relapse is higher in patients who manifest both indolent and aggressive histologies.
While indolent NHL is responsive to immunotherapy, radiation therapy, and chemotherapy, a continuous rate of relapse is usually seen in advanced stages. Patients, however, can often be re-treated with considerable success as long as the disease histology remains low grade. Patients who present with or convert to aggressive forms of NHL may have sustained complete remissions with combination chemotherapy regimens or aggressive consolidation with marrow or stem cell support.[4,5]
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