Type of Cancer Lymphoma, Risk Factors, and Symptoms

Cancer Lymphoma via cancer.gov

Hi my name is Steve Ansel I'm one of the hematologists of Mayo Clinic I am part of the lymphoma group and my interest is in Hodgkin lymphoma and other B cell cancers

Hodgkin lymphoma is a kind of cancer that is associated with abnormal B lymphocytes B lymphocytes are part of your normal immune system but when they become abnormal and

 grow in a cancerous fashion can cause lots of enlarged lymph nodes and lots of constitutional

symptoms Hodgkin lymphoma patients often present with enlarged lymph nodes in the neck

 or chest sometimes also in the abdomen many times with symptoms such as fevers or

sweating losing a lot of weight and commonly itching of the skin the diagnosis is made by a

biopsy which shows a typical cell called a Reid Sternberg cell present in the tumor serve in the tomb environment and this cell attracts a lot of the immune system which causes lymph

nodes to become enlarged and patients to have many of the constitutional symptoms that

they often present with the goal of treatment is to kill the Reid Sternberg cells and to decrease this inflammatory response and to cause patients to have a good outcome by restoring the

immune system back to normal patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma once they have been

diagnosed and have completed a staging evaluation can then proceed to chemotherapy a

staging evaluation is when a cat scan a PET scan bloodwork and sometimes a bone marrow

test is done to determine where in the body the Hodgkin lymphoma is present that's an

important evaluation because it determines treatment and treatment is largely defined in two

large categories firstly are patients who have limited stage disease this is disease that's

localized just on one side of the diaphragm and that allows for patients to be treated with

shorter courses of chemotherapy commonly then with radiation therapy added as a consolidation patients who have more extensive disease in other words advanced stage disease

have disease on both sides of their diaphragm and commonly then are treated with just

chemotherapy but for a more prolonged period of time the expectation is that most patients

will benefit from treatment probably around 80% of patients will have a complete response to treatment in other words all detectable disease will resolve the goal however is to ensure that

patients remain in a durable remission in other words that it does not come back for the long

term much though many patients do benefit from treatment and have a very good long-term

outcome that's not universal there are some patients unfortunately that still have problems with their disease returning and may need to go on to additional chemotherapy and even

possibly an autologous stem cell transplant it's because of the fact that not every single

patient has a good outcome that we at Mayo Clinic are focusing on new therapies and ways to

 improve standard therapies so that we can potentially have 100% of patients in the future

have a good outcome with treatment for Hodgkin's lymphoma the lymphoma group at Mayo

Clinic are focusing on improving treatments for patients with Hodgkin lymphoma ways in

which we wish to improve the treatments that we are currently administering is to ensure that

 a higher percentage of patients have a complete response to treatment the so-called first

milestone toward a good long-term outcome and also that we can improve the outcomes by diminishing long term toxicities we are currently participating or leading multiple clinical

trials in both early stage and advanced stage patients where we are looking to improve the

outcomes of patients by adding new drugs to combination chemotherapy in patients where the disease has subsequently recurred or come back we're also looking at adding and testing new

drugs in that environment to ensure that patients are restored to a complete remission and

hopefully again have a good long-term outcome in the frontline setting in patients who have

just been diagnosed currently we are looking at adding a new drug called Brent oxy marva

Doulton this is an antibody with the chemotherapy attached attached to the antibody that is delivered right to the cancer cell we're using this agent in combination with standard

chemotherapy and comparing it then to the standard combination approach that has been

used in the past also in early-stage Hodgkin lymphoma we are looking at ways to limit long

term toxicities by limiting the use of radiation therapy and again are using new drugs so

brynne toxin have the doulton being one of them in combination with standard chemotherapy

and omitting radiation therapy in the hopes of having better long-term outcomes as far as

more patients having an excellent response to treatment and fewer patients having long term

toxicities Mayo Clinic is leading much of the research in the area of Hodgkin lymphoma and is at the forefront of new therapies for this disease we feel that our combined approach of

utilizing multi disciplines all talking and coordinating care together everything from this

everyone everyone from the surgeon that does the biopsy through to the radiologist who does

the scanning and the testing as part of the staging evaluation the pathologist that reviews the biopsy and the radiation oncologist and hematologist who worked together to do the

treatment this is a coordinated team to give the patients that greatest likelihood of a good outcome for therapy along with that we are utilizing new treatments in combination with

standard approaches to hopefully give patients the highest likelihood of a good response to

treatment and the greatest likelihood of the long-term durable remission and potentially a

long-term cure furthermore we're focusing on using treatments that minimize long-term toxicities . Related Type of Cancer in Woman

so that for those patients who have an excellent long-term outcome they are not

struggling with long-term problems from the treatment they may have received years before
this coordinated effort with all of the members of the team working together is hopefully

going to improve the outcome of patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma in the future.

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