I am trying to find info on her prognosis. The Dr.s are telling us that the aggressive kind is the most treatable but from what I am reading we are confusing treatable with good outcome. It looks like it will be easier to cure if it can be cured, but the stats do not look good in terms of survival rates. Any input?

I am trying to find info on her prognosis. The Dr.s are telling us that the aggressive kind is the most treatable but from what I am reading we are confusing treatable with good outcome. It looks like it will be easier to cure if it can be cured, but the stats do not look good in terms of survival rates. Any input?
:p Nine years ago I was diagnosed with a high grade Non Hodgkins Lymphoma: B-Immunoblastic. I was told I "probably have only a few weeks to live,..a few months at most." (THree labs confirmed the diagnosis.)The oncologiest said that what they had to offer me was chemotherapy so toxic there was a five to ten percent chance IT would kill me.
Two different friends of mine (from different areas of my life) put me in touch with a friend of theirs who had gotten well on the Hoxsey treatment.
I did the treatment for three years (to a T!) and was told by my American oncologist I was cured. (Not "surviving" but cured)
Have had a great nine years, with great good health (I am 71 and have hno other health problems that require taking mediations.)
Two days before Christmas I discovered a lump in my neck.
CT scans show that all of my organs are clearn, but that I have enlarged lymph nodes in my left armpit, and in the abdomen and groin. (Also more in the left side of my neck and down behind my collarbone...I can feel several, what my interest reffered to as a "chain" or "string" of enlarged nodes.)
Bummer, I say to that.
From what i can glean, researching on the internet and elsewhere, older people (I am one of those!) do not withstand the rigors of chemo as well as young people. And the bad side effects can be permanant, if I were to survive the chemo. (They claim a 50-50 chance of "long-term remission or cure."
I decided to go back to the Hoxsey treatment, which I started on January 4.
I don't rule out anything, but at this point I feel well and an unwilling to do chemo. (That is just my choice..I would never advise anyone else. The oncologist, hinmself, did not urge me to do chemo. When I asked hinm pointblank "What would you do it you were I?" He looked me right in the eye and said, "I don't know. It is a personal deciision that only you can make."
This week I visited my dermatologist, who last month treated me for squamous cell skin cancer on my nose. Re: chemo, he said, "If I were diagnosed with cancer I wouldn't have chemo." He went on to tell me about a friend of him who was told he had only a few weeks to live because of metastatic melanoma. He is doing some kind of alternative treatment I'd never heard of, and he is fine and well, now some six years later!
I have met several people who recovered from melanomas, breast cancers, and lynphomas at the Hoxsey clinic, so I am comfortable with my choice.
I wish your mother the best of good fortune and that she recovers.
Incidentally, Dr. Andrew Weill alluded to the Hoxsey (herbal) treatment in one of his books which I read nine years ago...I donm't remember which one it was.
Marilyn

Hi Marilyn,

Thank you for the reply. I am going to look into the Hoxsey clinic. I hope you are able to recover from this setback.

I found this website:
http://www.asco.org/ac/1,1003,_12-002636-00_18-0016-00_19-002642,00.asp

It has the International Prognostic Index in Agressive Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma

I don't really understand the stats but I was curious because my mom died at age 33 of NHL in 1967 and they didn't have much to offer in the way of treatment back then. She lived 2 yrs. after the diagnosis but they said her MD waited too late to consult a specialist for them to do anything for her. There is a lot more hope these days. I hope your mom finds treatment that helps. My thoughts are with you both.

In 1987 I was diagnosed with NHL, I was 4, my parents were told several times during the course of my treatment that it would take a miracle for me to survive. I did 18 months of chemotherapy and some radiation and was then in remission. Doctors don't know everything, stay strong for your mom and be supportive; she has a long and hard road ahead of her but with your love and support she can make it through this!