Is the recurrence rate of lymphoma high after 5 years?

Is the recurrence rate of lymphoma high after 5 years? We must pay attention to maintenance after the treatment of lymphoma, and we need regular check-ups. Generally, the risk of recurrence is relatively high in the first two years after the end of treatment, and the frequency of check-ups should be higher, usually once every 3 to 4 months. After two years, you can have a check-up every six months. After five years, you can change to once a year and keep doing it for life.

The most typical manifestation of lymphoma is painless, progressive swelling of superficial lymph nodes, which are smooth in surface and tough in texture, and feel like a ping-pong ball or as hard as the tip of the nose. The most common symptom is cervical and supraclavicular lymph node swelling, followed by axillary and inguinal lymph nodes. Some patients also present with deep lymph node swelling as the main symptom, such as mediastinal, abdominal, and pelvic lymph node swelling, which is more insidious in onset and often more obvious when discovered.

Lymphoma can also invade organs outside the lymphatic system, manifesting as invasion, destruction, compression or obstruction of the corresponding organs. For example, the manifestations of gastrointestinal lymphoma are similar to those of gastric cancer and intestinal cancer, and may cause abdominal pain, gastrointestinal ulcers, bleeding, obstruction, compression and other symptoms; skin lymphoma is often misdiagnosed as psoriasis, eczema, dermatitis, etc.; if it invades the brain, it may cause headaches, blurred vision, speech disorders, confusion, personality changes, sensory and motor disorders of parts of the body and limbs, and even paralysis; if it invades the bones, it may cause bone pain and fractures; if it invades the nasopharynx, it may cause nasal congestion, runny nose, nose bleeding, etc., which are similar to the manifestations of nasopharyngeal cancer.

Patients with malignant tumors who achieve complete remission after chemotherapy or combined radiotherapy do not completely eradicate tumor cells. This complete remission is only a preliminary treatment success in the clinical sense. In fact, many tumor cells may still remain in the body at this time, but they are difficult to detect with the currently commonly used CT, B-ultrasound, PET, CT and hematological examinations. For example, although the initial treatment efficacy of Hodgkin's lymphoma and diffuse large B-cell lymphoma is very high and the complete remission rate is also very high, about one-quarter to one-third of the cases will relapse. The recurrence rate of peripheral T-cell lymphoma is even higher. Most indolent lymphomas are basically impossible to be completely cured with current treatment methods, and they may relapse sooner or later.