Why would my doctor take a "watch and wait" approach with lymphoma?

Why would my doctor take a "watch and wait" approach with 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 reason for waiting and watching is that low-grade haematological malignancies such as low-grade lymphomas and low-grade leukaemias are not able to be cured with standard therapy at all. We are basically achieving a palliation of treatment, a palliation of symptoms. Patients present with pain, we give them some sort of treatment to reduce that pain. Patients present or show to their doctor with large lymph nodes or large glands in their neck which are representative of a particular disease like lymphoma then we sometimes give therapy to reduce the size of these lymph nodes. The important thing in "waiting and watching" is that we wait until symptoms are severe enough or symptoms are present to require or necessitate treatment. That is where "waiting and watching" comes from.