Lymphoma
Lymphoma is cancer which arises in the lymph system, the body’s circulatory network for filtering out impurities.
What Is Lymphoma?
Lymphoma is cancer which arises in the lymph system, the body’s circulatory network for filtering out impurities. There are two broad varieties, Hodgkin’s disease, and Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is a malignant (cancerous) tumor and is more common in children than Hodgkin’s disease. It can arise in the tonsils, thymus, bone, small intestine, spleen or in the lymph glands any where in the body. Treatments have been developed that can cure many children, and other promising treatments are coming along.
Our Helping Hands provide more detailed information on Hodgkin’s disease and Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
As a national leader in outcomes and quality, we understand cancer.
Tests and Procedures
Depending on your child’s diagnosis, he or she may need to have tests or procedures done periodically through their treatment. These may be done to see how your child is responding to treatment or to keep a watch on side effects.
Click on the links below to learn more about specific tests and procedures:
-
EKG (Electrocardiogram)
-
IV Therapy
What Are the Treatment Options for Lymphoma?
The types of treatment used most often to treat childhood cancer are surgery, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and bone marrow transplantation. The goal of treatment is to destroy the cancer cells. Your child may have one kind of treatment or a combination of treatments and they may have to have a variety of tests and procedures during treatment. Their treatment plan depends on the type of cancer, stage of disease and many other factors. Before treatment starts, your doctor will discuss the treatment plan with you including expected benefits, risks and side effects. Nationwide Children's also participates in clinical trials.
The Blood and Cancer Center at Nationwide Children's Hospital is one of the largest pediatric cancer centers in the country and a member of the Children’s Oncology Group (COG), which ensures that your child will get the highest quality care available anywhere in the country. Our program is uniquely family-centered, with patients benefiting from a multi-disciplinary clinical team and state-of-the-art facility.
-
Surgery is a local therapy that involves the surgical removal of all or part of the cancer. Often, surgery is used with chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy. The type of operation will depend on the location of the main tumor, its size and other individual factors.
-
Chemotherapy is the treatment of cancer with “anti-cancer” drugs to destroy cancer cells throughout the body. Chemotherapy drugs slow or stop cancer cells from growing and making more abnormal cells. These drugs also may affect normal healthy cells, but healthy cells can repair and return to normal.
-
Radiation Therapy is the treatment of cancer and other diseases with high-energy rays to damage or destroy cancer cells. Radiation damages or destroys the cells in the area being treated making it impossible for the cancers cells to continue to grow and multiply. Most radiotherapy is delivered from the outside of the body (external beam radiotherapy) usually in the form of high energy X-rays. Radiation therapy can damage normal cells as well as cancer cells. When this happens, side effects occur. If your child is receiving radiation therapy, you will receive more information from your doctors and nurses.
-
A Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) replaces diseased bone marrow with healthy bone marrow. Bone marrow is the soft material inside the bones of the body that makes blood cells. In an autologous bone marrow transplant, the patient’s own bone marrow is treated and reinfused (put back into the patient). In an allogenic bone marrow transplant, healthy marrow comes from a donor.
Are Clinical Trails Offered for Lymphoma?
You or your child may be asked to participate in a clinical trial. Your participation in this research study is voluntary. A clinical trial is a research study in which physicians find ways to improve cancer treatment. The goals of these studies are to answer scientific questions about preventing, diagnosing and treating cancer.
A clinical trial for cancer treatment occurs in three phases.
-
Phase I – This is a first study done on a drug to test its safeness, to determine the right dose, and to determine when and how to give the drug. These studies usually are limited to a small number of patients.
-
Phase II – As in Phase I, this phase also tests the safety of a drug, but the trial also tests how well the drug works to treat different types of cancers.
-
Phase III – This phase of a clinical trial studies various drugs, usually in combination, against standard therapy. These studies enroll large numbers of patients at many different cancer centers.
Cancer treatment has improved greatly over the past several decades due to the use of clinical trials. Children’s Hospital does Phase I, Phase II and Phase III clinical trials. If you are asked to participate in a clinical trial, the physician will review the study and consent form with you and answer your questions. You will receive a pamphlet with more detailed information about clinical trials to help you make a decision.