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can a person aged 20 female with hodgkins lymphoma underwent pnemonectomy [left] is now going through chemotherapy and later will she able to get married and have children in the future what could be the life expectancy?

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Submitted by Ross on Mon, 07/27/2009 - 20:20.

AJW:
Much of it depends on what chemotherapy drugs she is receiving. What chemo regimen is she on? Hodgkin's Lymphoma is typically treated with one of three chemotherapy regimens:

The ABVD regimen: doxorubicin (Adriamycin), bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine.

The MOPP regimen: mechlorethamine, vincristine, procarbazine and prednisone.

The BEACOPP regimen: bleomycin, etoposide, doxorubicin (Adriamycin), cyclophosphamide, vincristine (Oncovin), procarbazine and prednisone.

Now here's the thing: the MOPP and BEACOPP regimens contain procarbazine, which makes men sterile and women infertile, irreversibly so. Thus if she's getting this drug, her chances of conceiving in the future are not good at all. In fact, the drug often causes premature menopause.

My guess however is that her cancer team is aware of her desire to have kids and put her on the ABVD regimen. While this regimen has its own problems (cardiopulmonary toxicity later in life and a small added risk of secondary leukemia) it does not have the infertility issues because it doesn't feature procarbazine.

That said, Hodgkin's Lymphoma is a curable cancer. Life expectancy is very long in many cases.

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