How is "high-grade" lymphoma treated?

How is "high-grade" lymphoma treated?

Noam Z. Drazin (Hematologist & Oncologist, Cedars-Sinai Medical Group) gives expert video advice on: What is the course of treatment for lymphoma?; How is "low-grade" lymphoma treated?; Is there any way to prevent lymphoma? and more...

As opposed to lower grade lymphomas where you wait for offending symptoms to get worse, high-grade lymphomas have the real potential of causing severe damage and mortality if not treated. The most wonderful thing about higher grade lymphomas and aggressive lymphomas are the ability to cure them even in advanced stages, and that can be utilised with significant advances in chemotherapy, bone marrow transplantation, as well as the combination of chemotherapy and radiation therapy. So, for the most part, with any diagnosis of a high-grade lymphoma whether it be by a lymph node biopsy, by a bone marrow biopsy, or by finding it circulating in the blood, we initiate treatment almost immediately. This is usually done with a combination of chemotherapy, immunotherapy, utilizing antibody based therapy, radiation therapy if necessary, and in the cases of advanced relapse lymphoma then bone marrow transplantation is utilised as well.