Stage IV Cancer has spread to the bone marrow or to the brain, its inner coverings, or the spinal cord. Recurrent Recurrent disease means that the cancer has come back after it has been treated. It may come back in the area where it first started or in another part of the body. There are treatments for all patients with childhood non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and patients can be cured. Bone marrow transplantation is being tested in clinical trials for certain patients.
Chemotherapy uses drugs to kill cancer cells and shrink tumors.
Chemotherapy may be taken by pill, or it may be put into the body by a needle in a vein or muscle. Chemotherapy is called a systemic treatment because the drugs enter the bloodstream, travel through the body, and can kill cancer cells throughout the body. Radiation given to the brain to kill cancer cells growing there is called cranial irradiation. Bone marrow transplantation is a newer type of treatment. Sometimes lymphoma cells become resistant to treatment with radiation therapy or chemotherapy.