How we improved the treatment of Hodgkin lymphoma

Follicular lymphoma, a common and usually slow-growing type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, has long been deemed incurable: Though the disease responds well to initial treatment, oncologists tell patients to expect it to come back. The results from a 15-year follow-up analysis of clinical trial patients with follicular lymphoma could upend that prediction. 

Long-term data on patients treated with a standard chemoimmunotherapy combination show relapse rates dropped over time and 70% of patients were still alive 15 years later, with an overall cure rate estimated at 42% of patients treated, according to a study led by scientists at SWOG, Fred Hutch Cancer Center, and the University of Rochester Medical Center.