Queensland discovery eases pain for Hodgkin’s lymphoma patients
Queensland researchers have made a breakthrough in the treatment of Hodgkin’s lymphoma, finding a way to minimise the amount of chemotherapy patients have to endure to fight the cancer.
The researchers from Cancer Council Queensland, Translational Research Institute and the Princess Alexandra Hospital have found a way to better individualise treatment to avoid over-treating patients.
This means people with Hodgkin’s lymphoma – and potentially other cancers – will only have to endure the minimum amount of chemotherapy and radiotherapy required to fight the disease.
“At the moment we decide how advanced the lymphoma is and we then decide a treatment based on that,’’ University of Queensland researcher Professor Maher Gandhi said.
“There might be a small amount, but it is nasty, or a lot of lymphoma but it is not as nasty.
“The blood test we have developed hopefully allows us to look at that so we can be a bit smarter with treatment.
“It is the commonest lymphoma in young adults and we tend to do reasonably well in terms of curing patients, but we probably do over-treat, putting people at risk of long-term side effects.’’
Cancer Council Queensland spokeswoman Katie Clift said about 120 Queenslanders were diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma each year, and about 20 died from the disease.
The five-year survival rate for the cancer – usually detected by a painless swollen lymph gland in the neck, underarm or groin – was 87 per cent, she said.
Jacinta Tooth, 18, was putting on a necklace for her Year 12 formal last year when she found an unexplained lump on her neck.
After several months of testing, she was told in April that she had Hodgkin’s lymphoma and started a course of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
“I think the biggest shock of it all was I was completely healthy,’’ she said.
“I had four months of chemo and it was hard, especially … when everyone has long beautiful hair, and you have none.’’
Source: The Courier Mail
Published: 21 July 2014
