Treatment of Aggressive Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

For information about the treatments listed below, see the Treatment Option Overview section.

Treatment of aggressive stage I and aggressive, contiguous stage II non-Hodgkin lymphoma may include the following:

• Monoclonal antibody therapy (rituximab) and combination chemotherapy. Sometimes radiation therapy is given later.
• A clinical trial of a new regimen of monoclonal antibody therapy and combination chemotherapy.

Treatment of aggressive, noncontiguous stage II, III, or IV non-Hodgkin lymphoma may include the following:

• Monoclonal antibody therapy (rituximab) with combination chemotherapy.
• Combination chemotherapy.
• A clinical trial of monoclonal antibody therapy with combination chemotherapy followed by radiation therapy.

Other treatments depend on the type of aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Treatment may include the following:

• For extranodal NK-/T-cell lymphoma, radiation therapy that may be given before, during, or after chemotherapy and CNS prophylaxis.
• For mantle cell lymphoma, monoclonal antibody therapy with combination chemotherapy, followed by stem cell transplant. Monoclonal antibody therapy may be given afterwards as maintenance therapy (treatment that is given after initial therapy to help keep cancer from coming back).
• For posttransplantation lymphoproliferative disorder, treatment with immunosuppressive drugs may be stopped. If this does not work or cannot be done, monoclonal antibody therapy alone or with chemotherapy may be given. For cancer that has not spread, surgery to remove the cancer or radiation therapy may be used.
• For plasmablastic lymphoma, treatments are like those used for lymphoblastic lymphoma or Burkitt lymphoma.

For information on the treatment of lymphoblastic lymphoma, see Treatment Options for Lymphoblastic Lymphoma and for information on the treatment of Burkitt lymphoma, see Treatment Options for Burkitt Lymphoma.