Hi all following on from my initial post. I have gastric malt lymphoma (which didn't clear after treatment of h pylori) its all been a bit ongoing since last November (initial diagnosis of h pylori and lymphoma) have recently had a bone marrow biopsy and a ct scan.
My mdt are recommending radiotherapy rather than originally rituximab, its indolent and confined to my stomach lining we think.
Any radiotheapy advise please, think I prefer the sound of this to rituximab
Hi Treesjm I have had both Radiotherapy and Rituximab….. although as part of my 6 cycles of R-EPOCH.
I had 45 zaps of Radiotherapy…. 5 to a tennis ball size tumour above my right eye…. 10 zaps to every lymph-node in my body as well as my Bone Marrow and 30 zaps over 15 working days to various areas of my skin…
The three main side effects were….
1) developing fatigue but this was partly down to the hassles when visiting and parking at hospital….
2) Dry skin - very carful skin care is required……
3)…. for me, especially the 10 zaps to my Lymph-Nodes and Bone Marrow (June 2014) had a significant effect on my immune system lasting 16 months and was actually seen as part of my preparation for my second Allogenic (donor) Stem Cell Transplant in Oct 2015.
I had about 600hrs of Rituximab as part of my 6 cycles of R-EPOCH….. this lasted for about 760hrs in total and I had no real issues with the treatment.
I do have a life long allergy to a lot of drugs so during all my treatments I was on significant quantities of IV antihistamines…… so I actually slept through a lot of my treatments.
Rituximab belongs to a group of cancer drugs known as monoclonal antibodies (Not Chemo). These drugs are sometimes called targeted (biological) therapies. They work by ‘targeting’ specific proteins (receptors) on the surface of Lymphoma cells and tend to be well tolerated.
