Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma explained
Welcome to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) explained, the section of Lymphoma Life that will help you understand the basics about NHL.
If you or someone you know has been diagnosed with NHL, this is a good place to start learning more about it. Facing a diagnosis like this can be very difficult to deal with. So it’s easy to forget or become confused about the details you’ve been given at the hospital or doctor’s surgery. This section of Lymphoma Life goes over what NHL is, and will help you decide what else you might need, or want, to know about the disease.
What is non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma?
- Your doctor has found you have a problem with a special kind of white blood cell called the lymphocyte, which normally helps you fight infections.
- Your lymphocytes have started to grow uncontrollably causing you to have a type of cancer called non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (sometimes known as NHL).
- Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is one of two main types of lymphoma (the other is Hodgkin’s disease).
- The most common symptom of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is the formation of lumps or swellings that are made up of the rapidly growing lymphocytes. These swellings are called lymphomas.
- There are one million people living with lymphoma around the world. And, approximately 360,000 new cases of lymphoma are diagnosed every year.
Find out more about non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
Treatment for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma
- There are more than 30 different types of non-Hodgkins’ lymphoma (NHL), and there are treatments for all of them. So accurate diagnosis of the type you have is very important.
- Everyone's experience of NHL is different, and many (but not all) patients respond to treatment.
- People who are treated for NHL can live normal or near-normal lives for many years.
Find out more about treatments for NHL
Is non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma the same as other cancers that I have heard about?
The white blood cells (lymphocytes) that are affected in non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) can travel all around the body. So the tumours they form, known as lymphomas, can occur almost anywhere. Other cancers, such as lung or breast cancer, start in particular body organs. In some types of NHL, the cancer can be widespread at diagnosis but patients can still live to normal life expectancy. In other cases, NHL can be localised, but fatal if not treated. Unlike other cancers, lymphomas do not usually destroy tissues but instead grow around organs. Lymphomas can therefore cause relatively few symptoms.