Non-Hodgkin's lymphomas are actually more than a dozen different diseases. Some are indolent or slow growing, while others are aggressive and spread quickly. Diagnosis of lymphoma type is made by examining the lymph-node cells and lymph-node structure under a microscope. Overall survival in patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is 50 to 60 percent at five years.
In the United States, one-quarter of people with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma have extranodal lymphoma, meaning the disease began outside the lymph nodes. One type appears in the stomach, the intestine, the tonsil and paranasal sinuses or the thyroid, and is aggressive but often curable when it is restricted to a certain area. The other type, which is much more rare, is found in the salivary gland, lung, eye area and skin, tends to grow very slowly and is highly curable.
High-grade, B-cell lymphoma accounts a significant portion of AIDS-related lymphomas.
Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is also classified by stage, the extent to which the disease has spread through the body. (See "Staging for Hodgkin's disease and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma" and "Staging tests for lymphoma," above) Most patients with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma are diagnosed with advanced disease; 10 to 15 percent have Stage I or Stage II disease.
Copyright © 2000 Oncology.com, Inc. All rights reserved.
