Some centers advocate the use of single agent rituximab in the treatment of follicular lymphoma rather than the wait-and-watch approach. Watchful waiting is not a desirable strategy for everyone, as it leads to significant distress and anxiety in some people. It has been called "watch and worry". High-grade
Treatment of some other, more aggressive, forms of lymphoma can result in a cure in the majority of cases, but the prognosis for people with a poor response to therapy is worse. Treatment for these types of lymphoma typically consists of aggressive chemotherapy, including the CHOP or R-CHOP regimen. A number of people are cured with first-line chemotherapy. Most relapses occur within the first two years, and the relapse risk drops significantly thereafter. For people who relapse, high-dose chemotherapy followed by autologous stem cell transplantation is a proven approach.The treatment of side effects is also important as they can occur due to the chemotherapy or the stem cell transplantation. It was evaluated whether mesenchymal stromal cells can be used for the treatment and prophylaxis of graft-versus-host diseases. The evidence is very uncertain about the therapeutic effect of mesenchymal stromal cells to treat graft-versus-host diseases on the all-cause mortality and complete disappear of chronic acute graft-versus-host diseases. Mesenchymal stromal cells may result in little to no difference in the all-cause mortality, relapse of malignant disease and incidence of acute and chronic graft-versus-host diseases if they are used for prophylactic reason.
Burkitts lymphoma), causing rapid deterioration and death. However, most of the aggressive lymphomas respond well to treatment and are curable. The prognosis, therefore, depends on the correct diagnosis and classification of the disease, which is established after examination of a biopsy by a pathologist (usually a hematopathologist). Previous classifications
Several previous classifications have been used, including Rappaport 1956, Lennert/Kiel 1974, BNLI, Working formulation (1982), and REAL (1994). The Working Formulation of 1982 was a classification of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. It excluded the Hodgkin lymphomas and divided the remaining lymphomas into four grades (low, intermediate, high, and miscellaneous) related to prognosis, with some further subdivisions based on the size and shape of affected cells. This purely histological classification included no information about cell surface markers, or genetics, and it made no distinction between T-cell lymphomas and B-cell lymphomas. It was widely accepted at the time of its publication but is now obsolete.In 1994, the Revised European-American Lymphoma (REAL) classification applied immunophenotypic and genetic features in identifying distinct clinicopathologic entities among all the lymphomas except Hodgkin lymphoma. For coding purposes, the ICD-O (codes 9590–9999) and ICD-10 (codes C81-C96) are available. Staging
After a diagnosis and before treatment, cancer is staged. This refers to determining if the cancer has spread, and if so, whether locally or to distant sites. Staging is reported as a grade between I (confined) and IV (spread).