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| Leukemia & Lymphoma Articles |
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Lymphoma 101
Lymphoma is a general term for a group of cancers that originate in the lymphatic system. Lymphoma results when a lymphocyte (a type of white blood cell) undergoes a malignant change and begins to multiply, eventually crowding out healthy cells and creating tumors, which enlarge the lymph nodes and can spread to other sites in the body.
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Leukemia 101
Leukemia is a cancer that originates in a cell in the bone marrow. It is characterized by the uncontrolled growth of developing bone marrow cells. There are two major classifications of leukemia: myelogenous or lymphocytic, which can each be acute or chronic.
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My Life With Lymphoma: Ideas For Better Living Through Straighter Thinking
The year was 1991. I was lying flat on my back in a cavernous room like a mausoleum, where the linear accelerator was located. It was day one of a three-day course of total body irradiation, which would strip away my own bone marrow and, subsequently, my own immune system.
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If Life Is A Tree, You Need To Branch: Making Cancer Treatment Decisions
The goal of a bone marrow transplant (BMT) is to replace a patient’s abnormal bone marrow cells with healthy ones. This is accomplished by destroying a patient’s bone marrow with full-body radiation or ultra high-dose chemotherapy and then injecting healthy bone marrow cells from either a donor (allogeneic transplant) or cells from the patients themselves (autologous transplant).
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Walking on Eggshells
In 1990, after having felt tired and listless for months, I finally went to see my doctor. His verdict was not good. I had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of cancer that attacks the body's immune system. Now, as cancers go, this one has at least some good news to go with it.
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A Genetic Look at Lymphoma
A lymphoma is a tumor of the immune system, usually involving cells called lymphocytes, which are cells that circulate in the lymphatic system. Lymphocytes originate in the bone marrow and carry on their surface special receptors that recognize antigens.
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Diagnosing Lymphoma: What Happens in the Lab?
The diagnosis of malignant lymphoma may involve several techniques and several individuals. When a diagnosis of lymphoma is suspected, the primary doctor or cancer specialist will do several blood tests, a thorough physical examination (including manual examination of lymph node sites) and possibly, depending on his or her suspicion of the type of lymphoma, a biopsy (removal and examination) of bone marrow.
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Lymphoma Classification: Making Sense of a Complex Disease
A lymphoma is a cancer arising from cells known as lymphocytes, which are a type of white blood cell. For doctors and patients alike, the diagnosis and classification of lymphomas is complex and often confusing.
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A New Test Helps Oncologists Make Treatment Decisions for People With Lymphoma
A new genetic test that has been applied to certain aggressive forms of lymphoma is offering clinicians a clearer picture of patients' chances of survival. It is also joining the ranks of critical new developments in oncology that are pointing the way to more targeted treatments for cancer.
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Bull's Eye: Targeted Therapy for Cancer
Today researchers are designing drugs that seek and destroy just cancer cells, sparing healthy cells. Targeted drug therapies known as monoclonal antibodies are already available to patients with certain types of cancers. Two monoclonal antibodies are now being used for the treatment of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
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Learning to Manage Cancer
Many people say that receiving a cancer diagnosis is like being punched in the stomach. It leaves them feeling helpless and hopeless. In the midst of this extreme emotion, the work of managing the cancer begins.
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A Shot of Hope: A New Cancer Vaccine Goes to Trial
A vaccine for cancer seems almost too good to be true. But recent developments in scientists' understanding of both genetics and the immune system have suddenly made vaccines for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma a reality.
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Under the Skin: A Link Between Psoriasis and Lymphoma?
It turns out that psoriasis, a chronic skin condition that causes itchy, scaly red patches, is more than skin deep. Psoriasis is caused by a problem with the immune system-and a recent study has linked the condition to a cancer of the immune system.
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Falling Short: Under-Treatment in Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma
A new study shows that about half of people with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma are under-treated, and that many of them are not getting the appropriate supportive therapy for their treatment side effects. This may affect the outcome of people receiving these potentially life-saving treatments.
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