Lymphomas

New Immunotherapy Therapy Approved for Lymphoma Patients

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The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new kind of immunotherapy drug for adults and children with classical Hodgkin lymphoma who have relapsed after three or more prior lines of therapy. The approved drug, pembrolizumab (Keytruda), is part of a class of immunotherapy drugs called checkpoint inhibitors that block the PD-1 protein, which is … Read more

Lymphoma Patient Gets Back on the Court Post-Treatment

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For much of his 17 years, Spencer Riley has lived to play basketball. This winter, his favorite sport helped the teenager get back to life. Riley was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2016 and treated at Dana-Farber/Boston Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Center that summer. He underwent an intensive three-month treatment cycle: one week of … Read more

Voices Podcast – Season 2 Episode #1: Then and Now with Lymphoma and Breast Cancer Survivor Catherine Goff

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When Catherine Goff was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma while attending college in the 1970s, it was the shock of a lifetime. Less surprising – but still life-changing – was her later diagnosis with breast cancer, a common secondary cancer for patients like Goff who received high doses of radiation therapy to the chest. Between these … Read more

Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma and Hodgkin Lymphoma: What’s the Difference?

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Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma are the two main types of lymphoma, a cancer that affects the lymphatic system. The lymphatic system produces and transports white blood cells to fight infection. While they have many characteristics in common, there are some significant differences between Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin lymphoma, including the age groups they affect, how they … Read more

How a Cure for Hodgkin Lymphoma Changed the Course of Cancer Treatment

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To mark its 50th anniversary, the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) invited physicians, patients, and the public to name the most important advances in clinical cancer research in the past half century. From more than 2,000 responses, the top choice was a cure for advanced Hodgkin lymphoma developed by scientists at the National Cancer … Read more

Hodgkin Lymphoma: Five Things You Need to Know

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Approximately 173,000 people in the United States are living with Hodgkin lymphoma, or are in remission. Less common than non-Hodgkin lymphoma, Hodgkin lymphoma (sometimes referred to as Hodgkin’s lymphoma) is a malignancy of B lymphocytes, an important cell in the immune system. This malignant B cell is known as the Reed-Sternberg cell.

Arnold Freedman, MD, clinical director of the Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center Adult Lymphoma Program, answers some questions about the disease:

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Clinical Trials and the Future of Lymphoma Treatment

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Current lymphoma therapies are a far cry from the mustard gas used more than 50 years ago. More treatment options, including ones that may be more effective and less toxic, are being studied in ongoing clinical trials.

“Clinical trials really are the future of lymphoma treatment,” says Ann LaCasce, MD, a medical oncologist in the Adult Lymphoma Program at Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center.

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An Overview of Lymphoma Therapy

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More than 70 years ago, two pharmacologists began looking at mustard gas as a possible treatment for lymphoma. The chemical, used during World War I, lowered blood counts and destroyed lymph nodes in soldiers who were exposed to the gas.

Two decades after the war, a thoracic surgeon named Gustav Lindskog used nitrogen mustard to successfully treat a patient with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

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Black Hawk Pilot Ben Groen battles lymphoma diagnosis

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New Year’s Eve 2010. In a military hospital in Hawaii with much of the staff away for the holidays, Army pilot Ben Groen learned he’d been diagnosed with T cell lymphoblastic non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a rare, aggressive cancer of the white blood cells and lymph nodes. His doctor told him that his treatment – which would need to begin almost immediately and require months of hospitalization – would exceed the capacity of the base’s blood bank.

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