Healing chances of the lymph gland cancer

Introduction

The chances of recovery from lymph node cancer are generally relatively good. However, it is also dependent on many factors and cannot be determined so easily. The values mentioned here for the chances of cure are only guidelines! important is the age of the patient and his concomitant diseases. Furthermore, the stage of the disease in which the patient is in and the response to the therapy also plays a major role.

Chances of recovery

The chance of recovery from lymph node cancer depends on many factors and cannot be determined easily. Important is the age of the patient and his concomitant diseases. Furthermore, the stage of the disease and how well the patient responds to the treatment.

In order to indicate the chances of a cure for lymph gland cancer, a distinction must first be made between so-called Hodgkin lymphoma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Hodgkin’s lymphoma can be treated curatively at all stages of the disease. Unfortunately, this is not always the case with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

Non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas can be divided into aggressive and non-aggressive forms. The aggressive lymph node cancers grow very fast, i.e. the cancer cells often divide. This sounds bad at first, but thanks to this fact, chemotherapy is very successful for these lymph node cancers.

If the cancer is not already in an advanced stage, the chances of cure are very good, up to 90%. In the non-aggressive forms of lymph gland cancer, tumor growth is rather slow, fewer symptoms occur and the course is rather gradual. Unfortunately, the slow growth of the cancer cells does not allow chemotherapy to have a good effect, so that these forms are usually not curable in the sense of killing all cancer cells. However, since the course of the disease is very slow, the chances of survival are not bad here either.

Chances of healing according to stages

The decisive factor is the stage at which lymph gland cancer is diagnosed and treated. In general, the earlier the better. In addition, each patient has his or her individual chances of recovery – depending, for example, on age and general physical condition.

Thus, purely statistical percentage values cannot always be applied to all patients. In the following, the chances of recovery in the individual tumor stages are described. When we speak of stage 1 of lymph node cancer, we mean that only one lymph node region of the body is affected.

It is also called that the cancer is ‘localized’. Radiation therapy is the most important part of the therapy. Here, the affected lymph nodes are irradiated and the cancer is thus combated.

If a so-called aggressive (“highly malignant”) non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is present, chemotherapy is also performed. Hodgkin’s disease is treated with chemotherapy alone. In early stage 1, the chances of cure for all types of lymph gland cancer are very good.

Stage 2 is when two or more lymph node regions are affected but are located on the same side of the diaphragm, i.e. either in the abdomen or in the chest. The therapy of stage 2 lymph node cancer is identical to the therapy in early stage. Stage 3 lymph node cancer occurs in several lymph node regions on both sides of the diaphragm, i.e. in both the chest and abdomen.

This is also referred to as a “systemic” spread. In Hodgkin’s disease, a different composition of chemotherapy is chosen from stage 3 onwards. Once this is complete, an examination technique known as positron emission tomography (PET) can be used to find remnants of the tumor tissue and irradiate them in a targeted manner.

This stage also has good chances of recovery. Even the highly malignant non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is still curable in stage 3 with chemotherapy. Only the so-called Low Malignant Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma is currently not curable from stage 3 onwards.

From now on, a so-called palliative therapy will be initiated to limit tumor growth and thus give the patient the longest possible life expectancy. In addition, concomitant complaints and pain will be relieved as much as possible. Since the low-malignant, i.e. non-aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphomas usually divide only slowly, the chances of cure are poor, but the prognosis is somewhat better because the cancer does not quickly destroy the whole body.Lymph node cancer has reached stage 4 when organs outside the lymphatic system are also affected and daughter tumors (metastases) have formed in the liver or brain, for example.

For Hodgkin’s disease and the highly malignant non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas, therapy remains the same as for stage 3. There is still a chance of cure, even if the burden is significantly increased compared to the early stages and the chances are somewhat lower. Only the low malignant Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is not curable in stage 4. Here, the above mentioned palliative therapy is applied.