Non-hodgkin's lymphoma treatment depends very much on the individual patient. There is a vast array of choices of tried and true treatments, and novel new therapies. And the list grows every year.

Of course having so many treatment choices can make this just that much more confusing for the patient who is trying to figure out what is the best choice to make. Perhaps the most important point to remember is that in most cases there are several equally effective treatments that can be used, and it is up to the patient and their doctor to choose the one they are both most comfortable with. A second opinion is highly likely to yield different suggestions, but don't let that scare you. It is quite common. 

The treatment your doctor recommends will only be made after a careful examination of all your tests. Early stage disease may be successfully treated with radiation therapy alone. Most patients do not present at early stage though, so single agent chemotherapy or combination chemotherapy is more common. Patients with large tumours will often have chemotherapy and radiation to the large tumour.

The United States National Comprehensive Cancer Network publishes a Clinical Practice Guidelines document which outlines the treatment decision tree that represents their expert opinion on how to treat NHL. This should give most people a good idea of what to expect from their own medical team.

Click here to read the NCCN clinical practice guideline for
Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma

Click on the links on the left for information about the various treatment options. Or click on some of the topics below to visit some other web sites with some great information.

Clinical trials
No patient should overlook the option of participating in a clinical trial. These are an important choice for all cancer patients. Not only do you have the opportunity to receive treatment that may be more effective than those currently available, but you also contribute to the future of other cancer patients by letting researchers learn from your experience.  

Virtually all clinical trials test a new treatment against the best existing treatment to see if they can improve upon the existing treatment. Placebo's are never used when testing cancer treatments. Placebo's might be used when conducting a trial that does not affect the potential life or death of the patients. For example a placebo could be used, versus a new drug to control nausea, vomiting, or other cancer treatment side effects.  

There are a number of questions you must consider carefully before participating in any clinical trial.

•  What are the goals of the trial?

•  What phase trial is it?

•  What results have been achieved so far?

•  What are the costs to the patient if any?

•  What ratio of patients get the new treatment and the control treatment?

•   Will I know whether I get the trial treatment or the control treatment?

•   Is it a blind or double blind trial?

•  If I do not respond during the trial what options to I have for further treatment?

•  If I am in the control group and don't get the trial drug, and I fail to respond do I have the option to exit the trial but still get the trial drug?

To find a clinical trial near you just go to our Clinical trials page by clicking on the Clinical Trials Search link on the left.

Vaccine's for Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma 
These are a very promising science, but one that is still in the clinical trial stages. Just like the name suggests, vaccines are an attempt to prevent relapses. Most of the vaccine trials are focusing on the indolent varieties of NHL at this time, and many of them are showing very promising early results. Karl Schwartz has done a fantastic job of collecting and organizing the massive amount of information available about vaccines. Rather than duplicate all his excellent work here, click on the link below to go directly his web site "Lymphomation". This link will take you directly to the vaccine area of the Lymphomation web site.
Click here for more vaccine information

The following link takes you to a comprehensive education webcast covering the clinical advances in Lymphoma Vaccines. This is a physicians education session so it is quite technical, but for those wishing to know detailed information about vaccines and the current state of the art, then this series of webcasts will be very interesting.

Clinical advances in Idiotype lymphoma vaccines

Long term survival strategies
Robert Miller is a long time Follicular Lymphoma survivor. In his nearly 20 years of researching lymphoma, its treatments and its consequences he has developed a set of strategies that have helped him survive for such an amazingly long time. He uses a combination of modern medicine, healthy lifestyle choices, specific nutritional choices, and healthy living to achieve his success. Click on the link below to visit his web site and read all about his strategies. 

Long term Survival strategies