FL Basics TK Archives

How Is Follicular Lymphoma Diagnosed and How Does It Progress?

December 7, 2022/in FL Basics TK, FL Toolkit, FL Video WN, FL What's Next, Follicular Lymphoma, Follicular Lymphoma Programs, NHL Videos WN, NHL Whats Next, Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma /by Kara Rayburn

How Is Follicular Lymphoma Diagnosed and How Does It Progress? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Follicular lymphoma expert Dr. Jane Winter explains common symptoms, tests involved in diagnosis, and how the disease may progress over time.

Dr. Jane Winter is a hematologist and medical oncologist at Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center at Northwestern University. More information on Dr. Winter here.

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What Is Follicular Lymphoma? What Are the Symptoms?

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What Is Follicular Lymphoma?

Transcript:

Laura Beth:

Dr. Winter, how is follicular lymphoma typically diagnosed?

Dr. Winter:

So, most often, it’s because of a new lump or bump that a patient notes, perhaps a lump in the neck, but also increasingly these days, many individuals wind up getting CT scans. Belly pain for which they go to the emergency room or something to evaluate another diagnosis, maybe some blood in the urine related to a totally different issue. But CT scans often reveal, enlarged lymph nodes or lymph nodes that are borderline and of concern.

And this will lead to investigation, ultimately, a biopsy, and a diagnosis of follicular lymphoma.

Laura Beth:

How does follicular lymphoma typically progress?

Dr. Winter:

So, to start with, most commonly, patients have low burden disease these days, but some adverse diagnosis will have very extensive disease, a big mass in the abdomen, disease in the chest, so, highly variable. For patients who begin with low burden disease, small lymph nodes that are not bothersome, we generally observe these patients.

And over time, these lymph nodes may begin to grow, and sometimes slowly, sometimes more rapidly to the point where they cause symptoms or are of concern because they’re cosmetically unattractive. There are occasional times where it’s a lump in the neck that just results in too many inquiries from others. So, that’s when we start thinking about maybe it’s time to start some treatment. So, progression, enlargement, sometimes it’ll be the beginning of symptoms. So, most patients with follicular lymphoma, at least in North America, don’t generally have symptoms at presentation, but B symptoms.

So, fevers, drenching night sweats, and by that, I mean sweats at night that lead to changing your T-shirt, changing the sheets or the nightgown, not the typical middle-aged woman with a hot flash. But, by drenching night sweats, we mean drenching. Unintentional weight loss. So, these are some of the symptoms that one can see, we call them B symptoms, we can see in patients with follicular lymphoma and other lymphomas as well that may signal progression.

What Do You Need to Know About Follicular Lymphoma?

November 30, 2022/in FL Basics TK, FL Toolkit, FL Video WN, FL What's Next, Follicular Lymphoma, Follicular Lymphoma Programs, NHL Videos WN, NHL Whats Next, Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma /by Kara Rayburn

What Do You Need to Know About Follicular Lymphoma? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

What should you and your loved ones know after a follicular lymphoma diagnosis? This animated video provides an overview of follicular lymphoma, current treatment options, and important steps for engaging in your care.

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Why Should Follicular Lymphoma Patients Seek a Second Opinion?

Three Key Steps for Newly Diagnosed Follicular Lymphoma Patients

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Transcript:

What do you need to know if you or a loved one has been diagnosed with follicular lymphoma?

Follicular lymphoma is a type of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma. It is typically slow-growing and can begin in the lymph nodes, bone marrow, or other organs. The disease does not always cause symptoms. But if symptoms are present, they can include swollen lymph nodes, fever, unintentional weight loss, and night sweats.

Follicular lymphoma is classified as “low grade” if the disease is slow-growing, or “high grade,” if the disease is more aggressive and growing more rapidly.

Follicular lymphoma is staged to understand where the lymphoma is in the body and to help determine which treatment options are best. There are four stages –

Stage I, in which the lymphoma is localized in one single lymph node area or one non-lymph node site. When there is a non-lymph node site involved, an “E” is added to the stage, meaning “extra nodal.”
In stage II, the lymphoma is in two or more areas on one side of the diaphragm. Again, “E” designation means that there is a non-lymph node site involved.
Stage III means the lymphoma is in two or more lymph node areas above and below the diaphragm.
And finally, stage IV is when the lymphoma is widespread, with involvement above and below the diaphragm, including at least one non-lymph node site.

Unlike in many other types of tumors, stage IV follicular lymphoma is often very treatable, because lymphomas tend to be sensitive to many different therapies.

Treatment recommendations are based on a variety of factors, including:

Disease stage
Tumor size and tumor grade
Disease symptoms
And a patient’s age and overall health

For some patients, treatment doesn’t begin right away, and an approach called “watchful waiting,” “observation,” or “active surveillance” is used to monitor the progression of the disease. This usually involves regular oncology clinic visits and lab checks – and sometimes repeat imaging scans.

When it is time to treat, options may include:

Radiation therapy
Chemotherapy
Targeted therapy
Immunotherapy
Or cellular therapy, such as CAR T-cell therapy or a bone marrow transplant.
Your physician may also recommend clinical trial options.

Now that you understand more about follicular lymphoma, how can you take an active role in your care?

First, continue to educate yourself about your condition. Ask your healthcare team to recommend credible resources of information.
Next, understand the goals of treatment and speak up about your personal preferences.
Consider a second opinion or a consult with a specialist following a diagnosis to confirm your treatment approach.
And, write down your questions before and during your appointments. Visit powerfulpatients.org/FL to access office visit planners to help you organize your thoughts. Bring loved ones to your appointments to help you recall information and to keep track of important details.
Ask your doctor whether a clinical trial might be right for you.
Finally, remember that you have a voice in your care. Don’t hesitate to ask questions and to share your concerns. You are your own best advocate.

To learn more about follicular lymphoma and to access tools for self-advocacy, visit powerfulpatients.org/Follicular.

Three Key Steps for Newly Diagnosed Follicular Lymphoma Patients

October 7, 2022/in FL Basics TK, FL Toolkit, FL Video WN, FL What's Next, Follicular Lymphoma, Follicular Lymphoma Programs, NHL Videos WN, NHL Whats Next, Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma /by Kara Rayburn

Three Key Steps for Newly Diagnosed Follicular Lymphoma Patients from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Once a patient has been diagnosed with follicular lymphoma, what’s next? Lymphoma expert Dr. Matthew Matasar shares his expert advice on key next steps for newly diagnosed patients.

Dr. Matthew Matasar is a lymphoma expert at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Chief of Medical Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Bergen. To learn more about Dr. Matasar, visit here.

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Why Should Follicular Lymphoma Patients Seek a Second Opinion?

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Transcript:

Katherine Banwell:

What three key pieces of advice would you have for a patient who has just been diagnosed with follicular lymphoma?

Dr. Matasar:

The first thing I would say is that everybody should have access to a second opinion pathology review.

This is independent of what the doctors are giving you advice in taking care of the illness, but just making sure that the diagnosis itself is correct. We know that the diagnosis of lymphoma is a tricky one for pathologists, particularly if they’re not pathologists that are seeing lymphoma under the microscope every day of the week. And when you go for a second opinion pathology review by having the slides sent to a major academic center, there’s a possibility that the diagnosis will be changed or revised in a way that’s meaningful meaning that it would lead to different recommendations for how to take care of your illness.

The second is that you’re entitled to a second opinion medical review as well and going to see an expert in lymphoma if your first opinion was with a community oncologist or somebody referred by your primary care doctor who may not have singular expertise in these illnesses, can be helpful. It can be reassuring if that doctor says, “You know what? I agree with your local oncologist, and I’m happy to collaborate with their care.”

Or they may say, “You know, we have a different perspective. There’s newer data. There’s newer options. There’s clinical trials. There’s other resources to bring to bear,” and maybe your choices are broader than you may have originally believed.

And the third is just to be that advocate for yourself, to take charge, and to participate in your care. Let your doctors know who you are, how you view things, how you like to receive your healthcare information. Are you a big picture or a detail person, and what are your priorities so that they can best match their recommendations to who you are as an individual, as a person, as a member of a family in the community so that they can give you the most personalized and appropriate recommendations possible.

Katherine Banwell:

Why should patients consider seeing a follicular lymphoma specialist?

Dr. Matasar:

I think that it’s increasingly important when you’re looking at a diagnosis of follicular lymphoma to consider seeking an expert second opinion from a lymphoma specialist. And this is because our understanding of this disease is changing very rapidly. The therapeutic armamentarium is changing very rapidly with new treatments becoming available every year. And sometimes a community oncologist who is required to be expert in many different diseases may not have access to the same body of information or the same insights that somebody who specializes in this disease may have at their fingertips.

What Is Follicular Lymphoma? What Are the Symptoms?

October 7, 2022/in FL Basics TK, FL Toolkit, FL Video WN, FL What's Next, Follicular Lymphoma, Follicular Lymphoma Programs, NHL Videos WN, NHL Whats Next, Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma /by Kara Rayburn

What Is Follicular Lymphoma? What Are the Symptoms? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Lymphoma expert Dr. Matthew Matasar defines follicular lymphoma and provides an overview of common disease symptoms.

Dr. Matthew Matasar is a lymphoma expert at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and Chief of Medical Oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering Bergen. To learn more about Dr. Matasar, visit here.

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Transcript:

Katherine Banwell:

What is follicular lymphoma?

Dr. Matasar:

Good question. So, follicular lymphoma, the first thing to say is that it’s a type of lymphoma. And lymphomas are cancers of lymphocytes, of immune cells. So, these illnesses are all cancers that come from and are of the immune system. There’s a tremendous variety of lymphomas, more than 100 different types, and these range from the slowest-growing to the fastest-growing things, and everything in between. But follicular lymphoma is one of the more common of these 100 plus diseases.

It’s actually the second most common in America, and the most common of what we call the indolent, or naturally slow-growing, B-cell lymphomas. It’s called follicular lymphoma, because the stage of lymphocyte growing up at which we think the cells went wrong was when they normally live inside of these little nests, or follicles, inside of lymph nodes. People get confused. They’re like follicular, is that like hair follicles? It’s not that I have that many left. But no, it’s really about the lymph node follicles. And that’s sort of the stage at which we think that the cells went wrong.

Katherine Banwell:

What are the symptoms of follicular lymphoma?

Dr. Matasar:

So, it’s a very variable illness. Sometimes, this is a disease that presents with symptoms. People have swollen lymph nodes, swollen glands that they feel or that their doctors felt, or they have lymph nodes or other growths in the body that are causing pain or discomfort. More typically, however, this will be found accidentally doing testing for other purposes.

You have a kidney stone, and your doctors do a CAT scan to look at the kidney stone. And they say, “Oh, what are those lymph nodes swollen about? What’s that about? We should probably figure out what’s going on there.” And then, there’s the third group which sort of present with what we all vague or constitutional symptoms, which is stuff like progressive fatigue, or maybe even fevers, or night sweats. But fatigue is a very common symptom that sometimes don’t even realize was there until sort of hindsight when they’re feeling better. And they’re like, “Wow, I didn’t know I could feel this good. I guess I’ve been tired for these last years. And I feel so much better. Thanks, doc.”

Monitoring Follicular Lymphoma Patients During Remission

March 22, 2022/in FL Basics TK, FL Toolkit, FL Video WN, FL What's Next, Follicular Lymphoma, Follicular Lymphoma Programs, NHL Videos WN, NHL Whats Next, Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma /by Kara Rayburn

Monitoring Follicular Lymphoma Patients During Remission from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Dr. Tycel Phillips reviews how follicular lymphoma patients are monitored during remission, including frequency of office visits.

Dr. Tycel Jovelle Phillips is a Medical Oncologist in the Hematology Clinic at The University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center. Learn more about Dr. Phillips, here.

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Transcript:

Katherine:

If someone receives treatment and then goes into remission, how are they monitored?

Dr. Phillips:

So, there’s a couple of different ways you can go about it.

Historically, what we would do is we would actually sometimes get CAT scans. But we’ve sort of pulled back from that in recent years. So, as of right now, the recommendation is really just clinical observation, meaning what I call well baby visits. Meaning I will see you in clinic at least every three months for the first year after completion of therapy. We do a system assessment, we’ll do a physical exam, we’ll do labs. Unless there is really something that at the completion of therapy that I’m concerned about, we won’t typically do any imaging.

We reserve imaging until there is a concern at some point, whether you have symptoms, there’s a lab issue, or there’s some other finding that comes up that means that we have to repeat pictures. So those visits I’ll do typically every three months for the first year, spaced out that every four months for the second year, post treatment. And then every six months up until about year four. And then it’ll become a yearly visit thereafter, as long as you continue to remain well without symptoms and nothing on an exam that’s concerning.

What Are the Stages of Follicular Lymphoma?

March 22, 2022/in FL Basics TK, FL Newly Diagnosed, FL Testing, FL Toolkit, FL Video ND, FL Video T, Follicular Lymphoma, Follicular Lymphoma Programs /by Kara Rayburn

What Are the Stages of Follicular Lymphoma? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

How does follicular lymphoma progress? Expert Dr. Tycel Phillips discusses the disease’s stages and the impact on treatment options.

Dr. Tycel Jovelle Phillips is a Medical Oncologist in the Hematology Clinic at The University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center. Learn more about Dr. Phillips, here.

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Transcript:

Katherine:

You’ve touched upon this briefly, but what are the stages of follicular lymphoma? How does it progress?

Dr. Phillips:

So, when we talk about follicular lymphoma, so, in stages there are four stages. Stage one, which means it’s localized in one general area. Or potentially into one organ. Stage two means that it is on one side of the diaphragm. So, we use your diaphragm as sort of a dividing point. Sort of like a Mason-Dixon line of the body. So, if it’s all on one side, it’s a stage two. If you have disease both above and below the diaphragm, you’d be considered to be stage three. Stage four indicates that you either have an organ involved in a nonadjacent lymph node.

So, let’s just say there’s a spot in your liver and you have a lymph node in your neck, or if your bone marrow is involved. For the most part, most patients with follicular lymphoma, because again, when develops, it doesn’t really develop with symptoms and typically is in there for quite a bit of time. Most patients will have what we consider to be advanced stage of this disease, meaning it’s stage three or four. Because the cancer has quite a bit of time to grow and move around before we find it.

It also comes in a set of grades. So, stage and grades are different. Stage is location, grade is what the pathologist sort of looks at when he looks under a microscope – how angry or big the cells look. So, we typically divide it into grades one and two; it’s very hard to separate one and two, so it’s generally grouped together. Which means there are mostly small round cells and very few big cells. And then we have grade 3A and grade 3B. And grade 3A means that when they look at it under the microscope, they see a fair number of larger cells which means that’s probably a bit more aggressive than the grade one to two.

And grade 3B is sort of separated into a category of its own. And we tend to treat grade 3B as a more aggressive lymphoma. we treat that very closely, like we treat the diffuse large B-cell lymphomas. So, grade 3B is in a category of its own, and then grades one to two and grade three are sort of clumped together.

What Is Follicular Lymphoma?

March 22, 2022/in FL Basics TK, FL Newly Diagnosed, FL Toolkit, FL Video ND, Follicular Lymphoma, Follicular Lymphoma Programs, NHL Newly Diagnosed, NHL Videos ND, Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma /by Kara Rayburn

What Is Follicular Lymphoma? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Dr. Tycel Phillips gives his expert definition of follicular lymphoma and explains why this disease is often found incidentally.

Dr. Tycel Jovelle Phillips is a Medical Oncologist in the Hematology Clinic at The University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center. Learn more about Dr. Phillips, here.

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Transcript:

Katherine:

What exactly is follicular lymphoma?

Dr. Phillips:

So, follicular lymphoma is a malignant growth or tumor in some situations, depending on how you want to describe it, of lymphocytes. Lymphocytes are normal cells that we have in our body and are a very important part of our immune system. For a very generic sort of description, lymphocytes come in what we call B and T-cells. B-cells, as I mentioned, are the cells that help make antibodies and it’s how we fight viruses and other diseases. These antibodies help our immune system recognize and hopefully clear these pathogens quicker.

And then we also have T-cells, which I like to refer to as like jailers, who will survey and sort of try to eliminate any abnormal cells. Lymphoma can come in a B-cell lymphoma or a T-cell lymphoma. For western Europe and the U.S., B-cell lymphomas account for the vast majority of cases of lymphoma; about 85%. When we look at B-cell lymphomas, we have Hodgkin’s Lymphomas, which are a separate category, and non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas.

And follicular lymphoma is the most common indolent, or what we consider slow growing, of non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas. So, when we talk about indolent as slow growing, these are lymphomas that are more than likely to be found incidentally by CAT scans. Or if you’re going for some other procedure, they’ll notice that you have enlarged lymph nodes and a biopsy will lead to a diagnosis of follicular lymphoma. In most cases, the cancer has probably been there for several years, at least months, before it’s been found. And in most cases, most patients have been living happily unbeknownst to them together with this cancer.

And so, follicular lymphoma being in that way is something that, again, we consider to be slow growing because, again, the more aggressive lymphomas tend to come with symptoms. So, these can come on more insidiously and are typically found incidentally.

Is the COVID Vaccine Safe and Effective for Follicular Lymphoma Patients?

March 22, 2022/in FL Basics TK, FL Newly Diagnosed, FL Toolkit, FL Video ND, Follicular Lymphoma, Follicular Lymphoma Programs /by Kara Rayburn

Is the COVID Vaccine Safe and Effective for Follicular Lymphoma Patients? from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Dr. Tycel Phillips discusses the efficacy and safety of the COVID vaccine for follicular lymphoma patients. Dr. Phillips reviews the effects it may have on patients and provides his expert advice.

Dr. Tycel Jovelle Phillips is a Medical Oncologist in the Hematology Clinic at The University of Michigan Rogel Cancer Center. Learn more about Dr. Phillips, here.

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What Are the Treatment Goals for Follicular Lymphoma?

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Transcript:

Katherine:

Is the COVID vaccine safe and effective for follicular lymphoma patients?

Dr. Phillips:

So, the vaccine is safe. The effectiveness of the vaccine does in some part depend on whether the patients are untreated or they’re currently on treatment. Some of the treatments that we use to combat follicular lymphoma and other lymphomas unfortunately targets one of the key cells in the response to the vaccine. So, as follicular lymphoma is a cancer of the malignant B-cell, one of our treatments are directed, you know, obviously killing off malignant B-cells. And unfortunately, we do take some innocent bystanders. So, your normal B-cells will be impacted, which does sometimes impact your abilities to make antibodies.

But we do know from research that the vaccines will also trigger a T-cell response, which most of our treatments will not impact. So, well, we do recommend for our patients to be vaccinated. Because, again, it is safe. And, again, it is effective even if it’s not as effective as it would be if you weren’t on treatment.

Katherine:

Mm-hmm. Better to be safe than sorry.

Dr. Phillips:

Yes.

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