About Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

Non-Hodgkin lymphoma is a cancer. Like other cancers, it starts when cells grow out of control, multiplying and crowding other normal cells.

Non-Hodgkin lymphoma starts in the lymph system, which contains the lymph nodes, spleen, and bone marrow. The lymph system is part of the body’s immune system that protects it from infections and diseases.

Lymph nodes contain the lymph fluid that carries white blood cells through a network of thin tubes spreading through the body.

Stanford research breakthroughs

Diagnosis & prognosis

Lymphoma Program physicians lead the field in the application of genetic technology to fight cancer. For example, researchers at the Cancer Center have identified a set of six genes that may predict response to treatment in patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), the most common form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

This finding is the first gene-based screen to identify people who need the most aggressive therapy. Stanford researchers also recently discovered a simpler yet as accurate 2 gene signature. This test can be done on a small piece of the tumor obtained at diagnosis.

Patients treated by physicians in the Lymphoma Program have access to this kind of predictive genetic screening through ongoing clinical studies in both DLBCL and follicular lymphoma.