Bob, Follicular Lymphoma Survivor
Bob, Follicular Lymphoma Survivor
Bob took reasonable care of himself in his late 40’s. He swam every other day, played softball, played racquetball, and didn’t really junk out with food. It was the fall of 1998 and he had a very small, pimple-sized bump on his right temple removed. Then 2 weeks after that simple surgery he got the news that their pathology report had found NHL. He couldn’t believe it. He thought it was cancer but didn’t know a thing about lymphoma.
He went immediately to a local oncologist who had done his internship in lymphoma and was referred to Bob by the surgeon. There he learned the difference between Hodgkin (HL) and non-Hodgkin (NHL) lymphoma and their respective issues.
Back then, it was thought that there were about 8-10 types of NHL and about 5-6 types of HL. A bone biopsy was done and there didn’t appear to be any signs of lingering NHL. Bob continued to meet with his superior oncologist every six months and got a clean bill of health.
Then, five years later, the NHL showed up in the abdominal area. It was at this time that the miraculous NHL treatment of Rituxin had been FDA-approved. It happened to have been approved for the indolent follicular lymphoma that Bob was diagnosed with. Bob and his oncologist decided on an initial treatment plan of R-CHOP, followed by Rituxin every six months for two years.
The R-CHOP treatments became exhausting. He was greatly fatigued. He lost his hair. He had such a sore throat that he had to put any food into an electric mixer and make it as liquid as possible.
Emotionally, he kept wondering “Why me?”, and if this R-CHOP treatment would work. He put messages out to friends, Romans, and countrymen to come sit with him for 3-4 hours for each R-CHOP treatment. That’s when he found out who real friends are.
Even today, Bob occasionally looks over his shoulder to see if he has relapsed. But his credo is to continue to move forward. Don’t ever stand still. He makes sure he has an outstanding medical team.
Rituxin saved his life 20+ years ago. He has been acting as a Lymphoma Research Foundation Ambassador since its inception over ten years ago. One of his Ambassador activities has him sitting on two cancer application review panels that meet twice each during the year. He provides a cancer survivor advocate voice on these panels of 12-16 world-renowned across the board cancer specialists.
As such, he wants to tell newly diagnosed lymphoma patients what he sees in the micro-oriented research for lymphoma that is going to be coming down the road. We have gone from 8-10 types of NHL just some 20+ years ago to recognizing 90+ types currently and the research is dramatically improving this field.
Lymphoma research 20+ years ago was a slow slog. Today, it is taking off like the shape of a hockey stick. Today, there are treatments that include radiation, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, bispecific antibody therapies, CAR T-cell targeted therapy, stem cell transplant, and clinical trials.
This is indeed the golden age of lymphoma research. Continue to move forward.