Childhood Lymphoma Treatment

At MD Anderson's Children's Cancer Hospital, we know your child's health is your top concern. Our renowned experts customize your child's care for lymphoma utilizing the most advanced treatments and techniques with the least impact on your child's growing body.

As part of one of the world's most active cancer centers, Children's Cancer Hospital has remarkable experience and skill in these types of cancer. This can make a difference in your child's outcome.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy drugs kill cancer cells, control their growth or relieve disease-related symptoms. Chemotherapy may involve a single drug or a combination of two or more drugs, depending on the type of cancer and how fast it is growing. 

The lymph system carries fluids throughout the body, which allows lymphoma to spread easily. Chemotherapy can also travel throughout the body easily. That makes it the most common treatment for lymphoma.

Learn more about chemotherapy.

Immunotherapy

The immune system finds and defends the body from infection and disease. Cancer is a complex disease that can evade and outsmart the immune system. Immunotherapy improves the immune system’s ability to eliminate cancer. 

Learn more about immunotherapy.

The following immunotherapies are used to treat childhood lymphoma:

• Monoclonal antibodies: These attach to specific proteins on the surface of cancer cells or immune cells. They either mark the cancer as a target for the immune system or boost the ability of immune cells to fight the cancer. 
• Immune checkpoint inhibitors: Immune checkpoint inhibitors stop the immune system from turning off before cancer is completely eliminated. Learn more about immune checkpoint inhibitors.

Stem cell transplantation 

A stem cell transplant (also known as a bone marrow transplant) is a procedure that replaces cancerous bone marrow with new, healthy bone marrow stem cells. For pediatric lymphoma, the healthy stem cells can come from a donor or from the patient. Patients usually receive a stem cell transplant after an intense round of chemotherapy that kills the patient’s existing bone marrow cells. Patients usually must stay in the hospital for three to four weeks after the transplant. 

Learn more about stem cell transplants.

Radiation therapy 

Radiation therapy uses powerful, focused beams of energy to kill cancer cells. There are several different radiation therapy techniques. Doctors can use these to accurately target a tumor while minimizing damage to healthy tissue.  

Doctors sometimes use radiation therapy along with chemotherapy to treat large areas or to minimize discomfort caused by cancerous lymph nodes that are affecting nearby organs or structures. It can also be used to treat tumors that have formed in the central nervous system.

Learn more about radiation therapy.

Surgery

Pediatric lymphoma patients may undergo surgery when tumors are causing severe and immediate problems, like intestinal blocks, severe pain from compressed nerves and organs, or breathing troubles. In rare cases, it can be used to help cure the disease.