Understanding treatment for follicular lymphoma

• There are lots of different treatment options for follicular lymphoma, and your doctor will recommend the best one for you based on things like your age, your general health, and where the lymphoma is in your body.
• The aim of treatment is to manage your symptoms and reduce the number of lymphoma cells to low or even undetectable amounts.
• If you’re worried about treatment, or you don’t want to have treatment, speak to your hospital team. They can tell you what to expect if you do or don’t have it.

The aim of treatment is to reduce the amount of lymphoma cells in your body to very low or undetectable amounts (this means that there are so few lymphoma cells left that they can't be seen by a test or scan.) Some people refer to this as going into remission, but others don't like to use that term as the cancer hasn't gone away completely and might come back.

The type of treatment you have will depend on things like your symptoms, the stage of the follicular lymphoma, and your overall health.

If you’re diagnosed with early stage follicular lymphoma, or you don’t have any symptoms yet, your doctor may decide it’s best to delay treatment. This is called being on active monitoring, which is sometimes referred to as “watch and wait”.

If you’re on active monitoring, you’ll have regular check-ups and your doctor will watch carefully for any signs that the lymphoma is growing. They may repeat some tests from time to time. You should let them know straight away if you develop any new symptoms or if something just doesn’t feel right.

It can be hard to accept you have cancer but aren’t being offered treatment, and our mind and emotions page contains a few suggestions on how to cope with worry and anxiety. It’s also worth knowing that some treatments for follicular lymphoma can be difficult for your body to cope with, and you might get unwanted side effects. Waiting until treatment will have the biggest impact is better than having it when you don’t really need it, and delaying treatment won’t affect how effective it is when you do have it.

Lots of people find the idea of having treatment scary, and some treatments can leave you feeling quite poorly. However, everybody reacts differently to treatment, and you might have a completely different experience to someone you know. If you’re worried about anything, there will be plenty of time to ask questions and share your preferences with your hospital team.

Some people don’t want to have any treatment at all, or may not want the kind of treatment their doctor recommends for them. If you have any concerns about this, you should speak to your hospital team. You have a right to choose whether you have treatment or not, and your doctor can explain what will happen if you don’t.

You can also give us a call on 0808 2080 888 - our nurses can help you build a relationship with your team and plan what to say to them.