Lymph gland cancer is a malignant degeneration of the cells of the lymphatic system, including lymph fluid and lymph nodes. Lymph gland cancer is divided into two subgroups: 1. Hodgkin’s lymphoma and 2. non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma Hodgkin’s lymphoma occurs with a frequency of 3 new cases per 100,000 people.
Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma occurs more frequently with a frequency of 12 per 100,000 inhabitants. Today, there is a whole range of treatment strategies that may consist of chemotherapy and radiation. An individual therapy adjustment is necessary for each patient. Thus, factors such as: play an important role in the decision on how to treat.
- Age
- Other concomitant diseases
- Stage of the disease and
- Formation of metastases
Life expectancy with lymph gland cancer
It is not easy to say how long life expectancy in lymph node cancer is, as many factors play a role in determining expected survival. First of all, it has to be considered whether a patient is suffering from Hodgkin’s or non-Hodgkin’s lymph gland cancer. Then, the age of the patient and concomitant diseases that were already present in the patient before the onset of cancer are taken into account.
It is also important how well the patient responds to an initiated treatment. If the treatment has to be discontinued early because of side effects or poor general condition, life expectancy also deteriorates. If the so-called first-line therapy is successful, life expectancy improves, but decreases in the event of a relapse (recurrence) and a necessary second treatment.
It is also important to note that although the prognosis of cancer may be good in some cases, the long-term damage caused by the necessary treatment is offset by a long survival time. To determine the prognosis, a so-called staging is performed. This is a series of diagnostic procedures designed to show how far advanced the cancer is.
Based on the staging, the cancer can then be assigned to a stage. Staging is therefore decisive for the type and duration of the therapy initiated and is performed first for every cancer patient. Hodgkin lymphoma is divided into limited stages that have not yet metastasized.
Only one lymph node station is affected and the patient does not suffer from the so-called B symptoms (night sweats, fever and weight loss). In the limited stages, patients have a good prognosis. Over 90% of the patients survive the next 5 years.
In the so called intermediate stage (a stage of severity between limited and advanced stage) it is just under 90% and in the advanced stage it is about 88%, of the patients who are still alive after 5 years. In non-Hodgkin lymphoma, of which there are still numerous subgroups, the mean survival rate is 10 years, including disease courses with survival rates between 2 and 20 years. The length of survival depends on the time of diagnosis, the type of therapy chosen and the complication rate of the therapy.
In determining the probability of survival, the so-called flip index has been identified. It contains risk factors and probabilities of recurrence of lymph gland cancer. Thus, patients would have a 10 year survival rate of 70% if they had no risk factor or only one risk factor.
With 2 risk factors, they would have a probability of survival of just under 50% and with more than 2 risk factors, the probability that patients would still be alive after 10 years would be 30%. The more risk factors there are, the higher the risk of recurrence, i.e. the risk that the disease will return even with treatment. Compared to other cancers, Hodgkin lymphoma has a good chance of recovery.
However, the decisive factors are, among others, the point in time when the disease was diagnosed, how far the disease has progressed and in which condition the patient is and how he or she can accept the therapy. With an early diagnosis, not yet advanced stage of the disease and good condition of the patient, the chance of recovery is 95%. Nevertheless, the applied therapies can have not inconsiderable side effects, which can then lead to late damage even in the distant future.
Also the development of other cancers is possible by the performed chemotherapy and/or radiation. In advanced stages of the disease, the chances of cure are temporarily reduced to less than 10%.In the vast majority of cases, treatment is started immediately after the diagnosis is made. This consists of a combination of chemotherapy and radiation.
In very few cases, the disease has progressed so far at the time of diagnosis that treatment must not be started at all. Sometimes, however, if the expected improvement does not occur or if the patient is intolerant of the drugs and/or radiation, treatment may have to be discontinued in order to prevent the body from being weakened more than necessary. You can find more information here: Lymph gland cancer chances of recovery
