Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is a type of cancer that affects the lymphocytes--white blood cells that make up a component of the blood. Non-Hodigkin's lymphoma involves an enlargement of the lymph nodes throughout the body, which can lead to symptoms such as abdominal pain, difficulty breathing and blood disorders. Without proper treatment, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma can also migrate and affect organs throughout the body. Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma can be controlled by a number of treatments to kill tumor cells and increase lifespan and quality of life for lymphoma patients.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is the use of toxic drugs to damage and kill cancer cells. It can be used in the treatment for a range of forms of cancer, including non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. There are a number of classes of chemotherapy drugs that each have their own mechanism of action, but in general chemotherapy targets fast-dividing cells in the body and damages essential structures within the cells to kill them.
Chemotherapy targets fast-dividing normal cells as well as cancer cells, so the use of chemotherapy can lead to unpleasant side effects. According to the information website Lymphoma Info, common types of chemotherapy agents used to treat non-Hodgkin's lymphoma include alkylating agents and nucleosides.
Immunotherapy
Another treatment to kill non-Hodgkin's lymphoma cells is immunotherapy. This type of treatment uses the body's own immune system to recognize and kill the cancer cells. The drugs used for this type of treatment are antibodies, which bind to specific factors found on the surface of cancer cells and target the cancer cells for attack by the immune system. The use of the antibody trains the immune system to seek out and kill cancer cells, treating the tumor. Since antibody treatments specifically target cancer cells, they cause fewer side effects than many chemotherapy drugs. Two drugs used in immunotherapy to treat non-Hodgkin's lymphoma are Rituximab and Interferon alpha, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center. This form of therapy may be combined with other cancer treatments, such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Bone Marrow Transplant
Mutations to bone marrow cells are the driving force behind non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Stem cells within the bone marrow continually divide and give rise to a number of cell types that make up the blood, including lymphocytes. If the bone marrow cells are mutated, they will give rise to mutated blood cells which can lead to cancers like non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Removing existing mutant bone marrow cells and replacing them with normal bone marrow cells can be used to treat non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
According to the Fox Chase Cancer Center, patients who have experienced a recurrence of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma are eligible for a bone marrow transplant. Bone marrow transplants are physically exhausting procedures, so they should only be attempted in cancer patients after other treatments have failed.
