JOHN D. HAINSWORTH, MD: There are two types that are probably the most common -- and these two types are very different in the way they act. One is a group of lymphomas called the "follicular" lymphomas. They are generally low-grade lymphomas, and then another type called "large-cell" lymphomas. They look different under the microscope, they act different, and the large-cell lymphomas are very aggressive. So without treatment, patients would do very poorly with those, and actually those are fatal within a number of months in most patients.
MARYANN BIRD: What is the difference between lymphomas and leukemias?
JOHN D. HAINSWORTH, MD: In general, leukemias involve mostly the blood and the bone marrow. Lymphomas are much more likely to involve lymph nodes, other organs, and sometimes also the bone marrow.
MARYANN BIRD: Are there specific risk factors?
JOHN D. HAINSWORTH, MD: The risk factors for lymphomas are a number of other diseases that affect the immune system. Patients who have immune suppression because they have transplants, autoimmune diseases likes rheumatoid arthritis, lupus -- HIV infection has been a common one recently that's lead to a rise in lymphoma incidence.
MARYANN BIRD: What are the signs and symptoms of NHL? Do they differ from the symptoms of other blood cancers?
JOHN D. HAINSWORTH, MD: I think this is a hard question to answer, because of the different kinds of lymphoma, so there's a wide variation.
In general, for the low-grade lymphomas, usually just finding some lymph nodes enlarged. Other symptoms are very much more common, though, in patients who have aggressive lymphomas and they usually feel bad. They often have fatigue, weight loss, fevers, night sweats, a variety of other things. And then local symptoms depending on where the lymphoma's involving.
