Cancer is an individual disease. Everyone is different, and everyone's non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is different. Your cancer specialist or cancer nurse is the best person to talk to about your future.

Your doctor or nurse might use the word remission. Being in remission means that treatment has worked and your cancer has gone. You can think of yourself as cured when you have been clear of lymphoma for five years.

There are certain things that can affect what happens to people with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Theodossiou C, Schwarzenberger P.
Non-Hodgkin's lymphomas.
Clinical Obstetrics and Gynecology. 2002; 45: 820-829.

 

 

 

 

 

¹

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
The International Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma Prognostic Factors Project.
A predictive model for aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
New England Journal of Medicine. 1993; 329: 987-994.

 

 

 

 

 

² For example, your age, your health and the stage of your lymphoma can all affect how your body copes with cancer. For more, see What are my chances of being cured?

The type of lymphoma you have is also important.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
The Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma Classification Project.
A clinical evaluation of the International Lymphoma Study Group classification of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Blood. 1997; 89: 3909-3918.

 

 

 

 

 

³ See Types of non-Hodgkin's lymphomas to find out more. Some non-Hodgkin's lymphomas are easier to treat than others. The most common type of lymphoma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, responds well to treatment. Most people whose disease has not spread can be cured.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
National Cancer Institute.
Hodgkin's lymphoma, adult.
Available at http://cancer.gov/cancerinfo/pdq/treatment (accessed on 16 January 2008).

 

 

 

 

 

⁴ Of the people who have advanced disease about half can be cured.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
National Cancer Institute.
Hodgkin's lymphoma, adult.
Available at http://cancer.gov/cancerinfo/pdq/treatment (accessed on 16 January 2008).

 

 

 

 

 

⁴

Cancer specialists are testing a new technique to help predict what will happen to people with large B-cell lymphoma. It's called gene expression profiling. To learn more, see Gene tests for people with large B-cell lymphoma.

If you want to find out more about how long people who have had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma live, see Survival rates for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. But please remember when you look at this page that statistics can't tell you what will happen to you as an individual. Everyone is different.

Like many other cancers, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma can come back after it's treated. When a cancer comes back it's called a relapse.

No one can tell you if your lymphoma will come back. It's difficult to say exactly how many people's non-Hodgkin's lymphoma will come back, because the research doesn't give any clear answers to this question. A rough estimate is that about half the people who have non-Hodgkin's lymphoma will get it again after they are treated. But the chance that this will happen to you depends on many things including the type of lymphoma you have.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Laport GF, Williams SF.
The role of high-dose chemotherapy in patients with Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
Seminars in Oncology. 1998; 25: 503-517.

 

 

 

 

 

⁵

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Couderc B, Dujols JP, Mokhtari F, et al.
The management of adult aggressive non-Hodgkin's lymphomas.
Critical Reviews in Oncology-Hematology. 2000; 35: 33-48.

 

 

 

 

 

⁶

Here are some things we do know.

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