How do patients with lymphoma receive surgery and radiotherapy

Patients with lymphoma under the age of 50 can achieve longer remission and disease-free survival with allogeneic or autologous bone marrow transplantation, but how are surgery and radiotherapy used?

1. Surgery

Surgery for patients with intranodal malignant lymphoma is mainly used for biopsy and pathology or for staged laparotomy. For patients with extranodal malignant lymphoma originating in the brain, spinal cord, orbit, salivary gland, thyroid, lung, liver, spleen, etc., surgical resection is usually performed first, followed by radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy.

Malignant lymphoma originating from the kidney, bladder, testicle, ovary, uterus, skin, breast, etc. should be removed surgically at an early stage, followed by chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy.

2. Radiation therapy

Hodgkin's disease: Radiotherapy is more effective than that for lymphosarcoma and reticulum cell sarcoma. The irradiation method is more commonly used with "cloak" or inverted "Y" irradiation fields. Generally, about 4000 cGy is given to the tissue within 4 weeks. During treatment, important organs are protected. Skin reactions are mild, and bone marrow suppression may occur.

Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (lymphosarcoma and reticulum cell sarcoma): Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is also sensitive to radiotherapy, but the recurrence rate is high. Therefore, only clinical stage I and II in the low-grade malignant group and pathological stage I in the moderate-grade malignant group can be treated with radiotherapy alone to expand the field or only the involved field. For non-Hodgkin's lymphoma with primary lesions in the tonsils, nasopharynx, or histiocytic type originating from bones, relatively satisfactory long-term remission can be achieved after local radiotherapy.