When this dreadful condition returns does it automatically rule out chance of cure? I only ask because last year when mum was diagnosed with non hodgkins lymphoma it was potentially cureable. Now because it has returned 4 months after the end of treatment it is apparently treatable but not cureable. Why so?
FormerMember
I just wanted to repeat that Retuximub is only licensed for stage 2 at the minute (which my Dad had). It will probably be made available to patients with stage 1 in the future. With breast cancer we had the same issues with the drug Herceptin - it was only licensed for patients with spread from the breast (ie not stage one) and who are HER2 positive. Therefore a freind of mine did not receive Herceptin in 2003 when she would have had most benefit from it. However when she became ill and was diagnosed iwth secondary spread 2 years later she WAS offered it - however, she was too ill to undergo the treatment and passed away shortly after. That is/was extremely furstrating for everyone, including our Oncologist who knew she would have had much longer had he been able to issue it at the beginning. Nowadays everyone is tested for Her2 at initial diaagnosis and if the results are positive they can have Herceptin in conjunction with regular chemotherapy regeimes. Before the rules changed, many women had to go to court to be allowed Herceptin by fighting their Primary Care Trusts who often refused to fund it because of the extortionate cost (£2,000 per treatment) - nowadays most (not all ) PCTs fund Herceptin.
Retuximmub is not 'old hat' it is, in drug terms, relatively new (hence its only being licensed for stage 2+) new drugs come along to join this reliable drug not take over from it.
So there you go - my thoughts. Please dont go down the herbal route there are no herbal cures for cancer - leave it to the experts. As I say (again) the team treating your Mum will be doing everything they can to cure her and give her the course of treatment they feel most suitable and tolerable for your Mum. The more effort your Mum expends during chemotherapy the more likely her white cell count will take longer to recover between treatments. I think a daily walk would be sufficient for someone in their 70's!!! Best wishes, Jools x
Doesn't seem as though "cure" is a possibility now Jules. Because the lymphoma has appeared in her neck (where the radiotherapy was last placed) she isn't allowed any more radiotherapy - supposedly because it will do more harm than good. She only received 15 doses (3 weeks). I've read of people receiving more than this and initially the radiotherapist seemed to suggested she would have 25 not 15. Now suddenly she is incurable because radiotherapy is no longer an option. Had the tumour surfaced in a different area we're told she would have been allowed radiotherapy - the sticking point seems to be because it's appeared in the same place. Dramatic difference from "curable" to "incurable". Next stage will probably be untreatable. Very annoying when others are diagnosed with stage II or more and are cured whereas she only had stage I (or so they say!! - could be an excuse not to give rituximab for all we know!!!).
I was diagnosed in 2005 with NHL ( stage 4 ) and was given R-chop straight away and my understanding is that from Sept 2007 Rituximab ( the R in R-chop ) is now given as a first stage treat ment BUT all patients are individual and there are other factors to take into consideration.i was 40 when diagnosed and my oncologist has told me on more than one occasion that the chemo I experienced would be quite intolerable on typically " older" patients but it is good to see other patients now having Rituximab routinely. I have had to fight to get Rituximab as a continuing maintenance treatment which I have had every 3 months for the last 2 years, last wednesday I heard that i am going to get it for a further one year .
Please pass on my support to your mum and my best wishes to yourself .
