What Is The Survival Rate For Lymphoma?

Generally, in case of cancer, the survival rate is measured for 1 year to 5 year. Survival rate is the measure of the number of people that survives for a particular period after diagnosis of cancer. Lymphoma is said to have higher cure rate as compared to many other cancers. The symptoms of lymphoma include the enlarged lymph nodes, weight loss, night sweats, and high levels of lactate dehydrogenase in blood. Highly advanced diagnostic techniques and new treatment strategies have radically changed the prognosis of this disease which was once having a very low survival rate. New approaches in the treatment artillery such as stem cell transplant and immunotherapy have boosted the confidence of oncologists in treating these deadly diseases.

What Is The Survival Rate For Lymphoma?

With the most modern diagnostic techniques such as FDG-PET scans, the lymphoma can easily be diagnosed. Further, the other diagnostic methods such as biopsy and other imaging techniques are quite capable of diagnosing lymphoma with accuracy. The survival rate depends upon various factors such as age of the patient, the stage of the lymphoma, in how many organs it has been spread, treatment strategy, patient’s response to treatment and the patient’s willingness to get treated.

The survival rate defines the number of people that live at least for a particular period. For e.g. a 5 year survival rate is the number of people who live for at least 5 years after being diagnosed with lymphoma. Also, survival rate is just a statistical data which gives the information about the historical fatalities and survival. However, the survival varies largely from person to person. Various factors impact the prognosis and the survival rate from a particular type of cancer. If the age of the patient is below 60, the chances of survival are relatively higher as compared to the patient over 60 when keeping the other things constant.

According to the International Prognostic index there are 5 factors which define the prognosis of aggressive lymphoma. These factors include age, stage, blood level of lactate dehydrogenase, metastasis of lymphoma and the performance status of the patient. The patient with stage I and stage II with non-metastatic lymphoma have the high survival are as compared to the patients with stage III and IV with metastatic lymphoma. One year survival rate of the patient is almost 90 percent while the five year survival rate is 82 percent for non-metastasized cancer. The five year survival rate reduces to approximately 60-65 percent in cases where the cancer is metastasized. This is a good prognosis as compared to many other cancers.

Diagnosis of Lymphoma

Various diagnostic methods ranging from the blood test to imaging techniques are used in the diagnosis of lymphoma. Following are the techniques

  1. Blood Test: Blood test plays a vital role in the preliminary diagnosis of lymphoma. Blood smear test and complete blood count provides important information about the presence of this disease. However, the diagnosis done with blood test is preliminary and should be confirmed by other diagnostic techniques.
  2. Biopsy: Various types of biopsy can be done to withdraw the tissues and examining them in the laboratory. The Excisional and Incisional biopsy is done where a large tissue or complete lymph node is withdrawn. In the needle biopsy, the sample of the tissue is obtained through needle.
  3. Imaging Techniques: The imaging techniques are the most important tool in diagnosing lymphoma. The various imaging techniques include Computed Tomography, Positron Emission Technology, Ultrasound and Magnetic Resonance Imaging. They also help the oncologist to identify the effect of treatment on the tumor and the probable cause of lymphoma.

Conclusion

The survival rate of lymphoma depends upon various factors. While keeping the other factors constant, the survival rate depends upon the stage of cancer, metastasis of tumor in other organs, age of the patient and treatment and response of patient to treatment. The one year survival rate is 90 percent in earlier stage while it drops to approximately 60% when diagnosed at later stages.

Also Read:

Team PainAssist
Team PainAssist
Written, Edited or Reviewed By: Team PainAssist, Pain Assist Inc. This article does not provide medical advice. See disclaimer
Last Modified On:August 24, 2021

Recent Posts

Related Posts