How likley is hodgkins lymphoma to occur again, once you had it already?

Nicole:
It's virtually impossible to give you an exact percentage, but keep in mind that the initial cure rate is very high, well over 80% if caught in time. Now, while Hodgkin's Lymphoma is indeed highly curable, there are a variety of factors that go into whether or not someone who's had it will in fact relapse. According to the American Society of Hematology, about 50% of those patients with relapsed Hodgkin's who are treated with an autologous stem cell transplant will be cured, which is good news but it doesn't answer your question.

Independent risk factors for relapse include:
--Time to relapse (less than 12 months vs more than 12 months)
--Clinical stage at relapse (stage III or IV)
--Anemia at relapse (males <12 g/dL; females < 10.5 g/dL).

If a patient with Hodgkin's DOES relapse, the standard treatment is Autologous Stem Cell Transplantation. What this means is that stem cells will be removed from your bone marrow; then you'll undergo high-dose chemotherapy to kill the cancer cells, then your bone marrow will be replenished with your own stem cells.

Ultimately, whether or not a person's Hodgkin's will relapse depends upon when it was diagnosed, how well their body reacted to the chemotherapy, and a number of other factors.

Ross