Lymphoma treatment
The treatments you have will depend on the type of lymphoma you have, how far it has spread (its stage) and whether you have symptoms.
Active monitoring
Some people with slow-developing blood cancers don’t need treatment straight away – this is called active monitoring or watch and wait. You’ll be carefully monitored, and will only start treatment if and when it’s needed.
Active monitoring doesn’t mean that you can’t be treated. It’s offered when your doctor believes there’s no added benefit to starting treatment straight away.
Common treatments for lymphoma
These are some of the common treatment for lymphoma. You might have these treatments on their own or in combination.
We have more detailed information about treatment if you select a type of lymphoma.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy uses drugs to kill cancer cells or stop them from growing. You will normally have chemotherapy through drip into a vein (intravenously).
Radiotherapy
You may also have radiotherapy. Radiotherapy uses high-energy rays to kill cancer cells in a specific area. The radiotherapy would be aimed at affected lymph nodes or lumps.
Other drug therapies
There are other drug therapies that can be used on their own or with chemotherapy.
Targeted therapies are drugs that work by targeting proteins or genetic changes that cancer cells have, which normal cells don’t have. They are also sometimes called biological therapies or immunotherapy. An example used for non-Hodgkin lymphoma is rituximab.
Another type of targeted therapy called bispecific antibodies is starting to be used for some types of lymphoma. These help your immune system destroy lymphoma cells by attaching themselves to both the lymphoma cells and your own immune cells.
Epcoritamab and glofitamab are examples that have been approved to treat diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL)
CAR T-cell therapy
CAR T-cell therapy may be an option for people with some types of lymphoma that comes back after their first treatment. CAR-T involves modifying white blood cells called T-cells to make them better at killing lymphoma cells.
Other treatments
Steroids are drugs that can make some chemotherapy treatments more effective and help you feel less sick during treatment.
You may also have injections called growth factor injections to encourage your body to make more white blood cells. This is particularly common if you have a fast growing lymphoma called diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL).
Read more specific information about treatments by choosing a type of lymphoma.
Lymphoma research impact
Our research in lymphoma has focused on improving treatments. Read about our research impact on lymphoma.