What is the course of treatment for lymphoma?

What is the course of treatment for lymphoma?

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...

The treatment course for patients with lymphomas and curable lymphomas (meaning the high grade or the aggressive lymphomas) involves a pretty protracted course of therapy, usually with chemotherapy, plus or minus radiation therapy afterwards. The standard course of therapy lasts anywhere between four and six months, and requires doctor appointments weekly to every three weeks, infusional visits, and nursing visits as needed to maintain your health and control of your symptoms. After their course of treatment most patients are verified to be in remission or cured using different screening modalities and imaging such as CT scans, PET scans, or MRIs. If it has been determined that patients don't need additional radiation therapy then they see me in follow-up, or see physicians in follow-up, every three months for the first two years, every six months for the subsequent three years, and then yearly after that.