Lymphoma, both the Hodgkin’s and NHL type, is becoming increasingly more common. Each year, thousands upon thousands of American citizens are diagnosed with this disease, and since the 70s, these numbers have almost doubled. People who have survived it once can suffer a relapse, just like other forms of cancer. However, lymphoma treatment has made great progress lately, and now there are several treatments available.
The background of lymphoma treatment is quite a lengthy one. NHL lymphoma has gone through a time of rapid growth, possibly because we tend to use more drugs today that affect your immune system directly. Because there are more than twenty types of the NHL cancer, it can be difficult to treat, as every case is different. Hodgkin’s lymphoma isn’t any easier to treat.
For people who have already failed regular chemotherapy, there are other lymphoma treatment options out there. In 1998, Rituxan was released, this works with specific lymphomas and people who have relapsed and even those with earlier stages of the cancer. Ever since then, Rituxan has been added as a standard element of the treatment of the disease.
Rituxan has many benefits, namely that it allows for less chemotherapy and has less side effects. Because it is more gentle and only targets lymphoma cells, patients don’t experience the shortness of breath or blood count drop that regular chemotherapy typically produces. Similar to all drugs however, there are some serious side effects that ought to be considered carefully.
Since Rituxan came available, many other types of lymphoma treatments have become available to cancer patients. Both Zevalin and Bexxar show much promise, particularly when compared to Rituxan's success rates. When compared to Rituxan, Zevalin showed nearly double the rate of people who witnessed a complete remission of the cancer, making it so that patients could receive less chemotherapy.
Chemotherapy is extremely difficult for cancer victims, so these new lymphoma treatments are a welcome change. More recent radioimmunotherapy treatments don’t have the same loss of hair, sickness and other negative effects that chemotherapy does, and these treatments have a higher rate of success for years into the future.
Lymphoma treatment has come a long way in the last ten years, and now there are over 180 various drugs which are being tested for the treatment of the NHL type of the cancer. Since there are so many, it will take some time to decide which ones are best, but the greatest advantage to these drugs is that they take only a week or two of treatments, compared to the months of chemotherapy.
Whether you or someone you know is battling lymphoma, there are treatment methods available. Of course, there is always a chance for relapse, but make sure that you don’t let discouragement change you.
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