Lymphoma is a silent cancer with no obvious symptoms at the initial stage. It is often confused with a cold, thus delaying treatment. If you experience six major symptoms of fever, swelling, itching, sweating, coughing and losing weight, especially if there is an unexplained lymphadenopathy accompanied by persistent fever, special attention should be paid.

According to a cancer registration report issued by the Ministry of Health and Welfare in 2009, there were 2,340 patients with lymphoma in Taiwan in one year, of whom 2,168 contracted non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL), with a growth rate of nearly 80% in the past 10 years.

The symptoms of lymphoma are easy to be confused with general diseases, and the manifestations are very complex. Lymphoma is mainly divided into Hodgkin's lymphoma and non-hodgkin's lymphoma. In Taiwan, the incidence of non-hodgkin's lymphoma is much higher than that of Hodgkin's lymphoma, which is about 13:1.

Treatment

NHL is divided into B-cell and T-cell, and three kinds of malignancies: high malignancy, medium malignancy and low malignancy. The type of lymphoma must be determined before the possible extent of invasion of cancer cells can be further understood and appropriate treatment options can be selected. In recent years, treatment has become more effective thanks to the advent of targeted drugs.

Nearly 60% of patients with B-cell NHL with medium and high malignancy survived for more than five years with complete sessions of chemotherapy and targeted therapy. Over 10 years of follow-up, more than 60% of patients who responded fully to treatment had no recurrence of the disease.

For low-grade lymphoma, induction therapy plus maintenance therapy can achieve a 3-year survival rate without deterioration in 70% of patients. Therefore, no matter what the malignant degree of lymphoma is, it is necessary to receive a full course of treatment in order to have a better therapeutic effect.

On the whole, there is a high chance of success in the treatment of lymphoma, but we must seek treatment as early as possible. Clinically, patients with high malignancy sometimes delay treatment, but the later treatment, the less effective.