Hodgkin's Disease

Treatment of Hodgkin's lymphoma has become increasingly effective over the years. The type of treatment used for Hodgkin's depends on the information obtained by staging, and may include chemotherapy (treatment with a combination of drugs), and /or radiotherapy (treatment with x rays which kill cancer cells).

Both chemotherapy and radiotherapy often have side effects. Chemotherapy can result in nausea, vomiting, hair loss, and increased susceptibility to infection. Radiotherapy can cause sore throat, difficulty swallowing, diarrhea, and growth abnormalities in children. Both forms of treatment, especially in combination, can result in sterility (the permanent inability to produce offspring), as well as heart and lung damage.

The most serious negative result of the currently available treatments for Hodgkin's disease is the possible development in the future of another form of cancer. This phenomenon is referred to as second malignancy. Examples of second cancers include leukemia (cancer of a blood component), breast cancer, bone cancer, or thyroid cancer. A great deal of cancer research is devoted to preventing these second malignancies.