Can lymphoma be cured?

  Once the diagnosis of lymphoma is clear, it should be given treatment. At present, there are several methods to treat lymphoma: 1) chemotherapy; 2) radiation therapy; 3) bone marrow transplantation therapy; 4) biological immunotherapy and Chinese herbal medicine therapy.  Chemotherapy is currently the main treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (referred to as chemotherapy). An optimal combination chemotherapy regimen is chosen for different types of lymphoma and the severity of the patient’s disease. The vast majority of lymphoma patients (60%-85%) achieve complete remission after combination chemotherapy. However, some patients whose disease remains uncontrolled after multiple chemotherapy sessions will need to change their chemotherapy regimen or add other treatments. For patients whose disease is controlled and in complete remission after treatment, further treatments such as bone marrow transplantation, monoclonal antibodies, interferon and Chinese herbal medicine are required depending on the patient’s age and other conditions in order to keep the patient alive for a long time.  Radiation therapy is referred to as radiotherapy. In non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, radiotherapy is mostly used as an adjuvant treatment to chemotherapy. If enlarged lymph nodes or diseased tissues are still present in one part of the body after combined chemotherapy, radiotherapy may be applied to bring focal lesions under control.  Bone marrow transplantation is one of the curative treatments for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. The former uses the patient’s own bone marrow, while the latter requires a compatible donor to supply bone marrow or peripheral blood stem cells. The latter is more effective, but requires a donor and has rejection reactions, so it is more dangerous and relatively more expensive.  Biological immunotherapy is a rapidly developing treatment method in the past one or two decades. Although chemotherapy and radiotherapy can kill most of the tumor cells, there are always residual tumor cells in the patient’s body, and these residual tumor cells are not only useless for general radiotherapy and chemotherapy, but also are often the root cause of disease recurrence in the future. Immunotherapy not only does not have the harmful effect of chemotherapy and radiotherapy on the body, but also conforms to the physiological state of the body – the residual tumor cells are completely destroyed through the adjustment of immune mechanism. Currently, there are two types of effective biological treatments for lymphoma: interferon and monoclonal antibodies against CD20 antigen (monoclonal antibodies for short).  Interferon therapy for lymphoma is generally more effective in low-grade malignant lymphoma. It is usually given in combination with induction chemotherapy or as maintenance therapy with a single interferon after 6 to 8 courses of chemotherapy have been terminated, resulting in a prolonged remission period.  Monoclonal antibody against CD20 antigen is the first monoclonal antibody (Meroval) approved by FDA for lymphoma treatment, which achieves the treatment of lymphoma through immune mechanism, anti-tumor cell proliferation and prompting tumor cell apoptosis.