Then, in August of last year, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. He'd been healthy his whole life and never thought of himself as being at risk for cancer. Now, after several months of chemotherapy, his cancer is in remission, and his doctors tell him he has an excellent chance to beat the disease. I had chemotherapy on Friday and was out snowboarding on Saturday. His doctors say precisely targeted radiation therapy should knock the cancer out entirely.
Many people think of a cancer diagnosis as a death sentence.
But for lymphoma, that's far from the case. There are more than 60,000 cases of lymphoma a year in the United States. Cure rates for Hodgkin's lymphoma, a slower-progressing form that usually strikes younger people, are near 90 percent. For non-Hodgkins lymphoma, depending on the stage and type, the cure rate can range from 20 to 80 percent. Nichols is also associate director for clinical research at the Oregon Cancer Center and one of the nation's leading experts on the treatment of lymphoma.