My husband has been diagnosed with Large Cell Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. He has a soft tissue mass in his lower spine involving the nerve root and a pathologic fracture in the L5 vertebral body. He has severe acquired disease throughout the lumbar spine. His PET scan shows hot spots (small) in his lungs, one on a rib and on the sternum. We thought at first that he had a ruptured disk, degenerative arthritis, etc. I will find out more tomorrow about the sub-type NHL that he has and whether or not tumor cells are in the bone marrow. He has had 5 radiation treatments this week and started chemo today. His cancer is a Stage IVB. What the heck is the prognosis for this??
His Dr.'s are amazed at his physical condition for 80 years old, although he does suffer from COPD. They can't use their #1 chemo drug because they fear it is too risky for his heart (because of his age). His heart is fine right now. Our Dr.'s are encouraged though that they can help him.
I'm new at this, although he did survive bladder/prostate cancer in 2000 and the Dr.'s are really happy that this is not a reoccurrance of that cancer but a new one. Lordy, where does it all end??