Odds?

My mother was diagnosed this past week with lung cancer that spread to her lymph system.  I presume this means she's had it for a good long while.  She says she feels fine internally, but her skin is red and flaky (as if at the ass-end of a horrendous sunburn), the result of a presently dysfunctional immune system. 

I've been reading everything I can and my eyes are glossed over.  Could somebody with experience please tell me how spreading correlates to which stage the cancer is at?

Is lymphoma the last frontier?  Is lymphoma even the right word for this?  Have you heard of any means to make it stop, regress, or disappear altogether?  Please share any details. 

Arlen

Hello

I can completely relate to what you mean, my partner has recently been diagnosed with Lymphoma at 29, and I've been reaqding so much on it I think my eyes are turning square!

In regards to the stages of lymphoma, there are four. It depends on where the cancer is and how much it has spread. Stage one is just in one localised lymph group, stage two is in two or three regions NEAR EACH OTHER. Stage three is in several regions on neck, chest and abdomen, and stage four is widespread in the lymph nodes and OTHER parts of the body, such as lungs, liver and bone.

As for a cure? It appears that aggressive Hodgkins Lymphoma (although more quickly deadly), can be cured with aggressive treatment. My partner has Non-Hodgkins, which is indolen (slow growing) but aparently incurable.

Despite this I'm hopeful, you have to be really. 

I've heard flaky skin is a symptom, as your lymph system exist in your skin also. It may have something to do with Apoptosis (natural cell death) not taking place in the skin organ, as this is a result of the overproduction of BCL-2 by the cancerous lymph nodes. But I'm no doctor.

My thoughts are with you

Amanda 

 

 

 

Amanda,

Thank you for responding.  I can hardly find someone to have a real-time dialogue with -- surprising, since cancer is so prevalent.

Everytime I see lymphoma, it's preceded by Hodgkins or Non-Hodgkins.  Does lymphoma only come in those two forms?  And when you say Hodgkins can be cured with aggressive treatment, are you talking about chemo?

 Have you heard of fucoidan or Anvirzel?  I'm afraid to put too much faith in either, but they say that both have been successful at ANY stage of any cancer.

Let me know. 

Know what you mean, these boards don't get quick resposes. There is an abundance of information on the internet though, just takes a bit of time. I was a complete ignoramus about Lymphoma two weeks ago!

I haven't heard of the two drugs you mentioned, but then there are so many! Have they passed lab trials? Are they reputable? How do they work?

I did mean chemo and radio when I said aggressive treatment. The word 'cured' as used in relation to lymphoma has me a bit confused though. It seems that in this case doctors consider a cure more than five years of no relapse...not necessarily that it will never happen again. I'm not so sure really. 

There are more than 40 types of lymphoma, most of the varieties falling into the non-hodkins group. Hodgkins Lymphomas are those where the mutation involves the B-lymphocytes.From what I've read and been told by quite a few people, indolent lymphomas haven't shown to be very responsive to either chemo or radiotherapy. There may be no change in the tumors, or if they is, they just flare up again afterwards, often more aggresively, sometimes returning as the more aggresive Hodgkins version. As a result the 'watch and wait' approach is often advised. Results are far better in Hodgkins lymphoma, although there are always side effects from the treatment.

I've also heard of some monoclonal antibodies (animal antibodies harvested from mice and given to lymphoma patients) that apparently can work even in the early stages. Rituxan/rituximab is one of these. Rituxan is often given along with chemo etc in a treatment called R-CHOP (the r stands for Rituxan, P for prednisone, can't remember the others).

Do you know what kind of lymphoma your mother has? Is it aggressive or indolent? Non-Hodge or Hodge?

 

I have been using alternative medicine only since my non Hodgkin's lymphoma was diagnosis in May 2004. Chemo was recommended for me at that time but I chose instead to take an alternative path after researching a lot on chemo and non Hodgkin's. The prognosis was not good at all and the chance of chemo causing the cancer to become more aggressive was very high. I am stronger and healthier with no symptoms of disease at this point over three years later. My primary health care giver is a medical doctor who practices complementary and integrative medicine with exceptionally good results with many forms of cancer. AVEMAR is a natural supplement that he highly recommends for building the immune system back to an optimum level which enables it to effectively destroy cancer cells. It can safely be used with chemo but is also effective on it's own. Here are two websites with some information regarding this substance but there is lots more information to be found if you do a Google search. Hope this is helpful. ______________________________________________________________ http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1196/annals.1361 http://www.rejuvenation-science.com/avemar.html

WHOOPS! Sorry....I attached the wrong website for the Avemar research studies....The correct one is. http://www.avemarresearch.com/TOC.html

My Mom has been battling lung cancer for the past six years.  We discovered it had moved into her lymph system about two months ago.  Last week we found it she has tumors in her brain.  The problem with the lymph system involvement is that now the cancer can move freely thru the body, landing wherever it likes.  The good news is that lymph involvement does NOT mean 'the end is near'.....people can go on a good while with lung cancer that has spread to the lymphatic system.  Unfortunately, I do believe that this cancer is stage IV because of the metastisis factor.  Good luck to you and hang in there, this is a tough road we are on.

I was a little confused when I read your post.  It sounds like your mom has lung cancer which has spread to her lymph nodes.  This is different from lymphoma.  Lung cancer can be small cell or non small cell.  Prognosis and treatment depend on the type.