R-Chop failed with lymphoma, what's next treatment?

[ronsolo306]

My wife (81 but in great physical shape) was diagnosed with stage 3 follicular lymphoma and began R-Chop therapy in August 2021, finished December. Pet scan late December showed a return of several nodes that an earlier Pet scan (October) showed "almost resolved". The Doctor is concerned that her condition has become more aggressive and has performed a biopsy of her "hottest" node. We are waiting for the results. What should be the consideration for the next treatment since R-Chop did not work even for a little while. She is skeptical of trying Car-T because of her age and because she has to have failed 2 courses of treatment prior to being treated with Car-T. Just trying to be pro-active and know of some 2nd treatments that might be beneficial to both her disease and prolonging her life with consideration for her age.

[BerkshireBear]

Mine is in remission now for 5 years, but doc said follicular is "never considered cured" so we just wait for it to return. Back when we finished up he said that the treatment would be RCHOP again if it reappears, and that RCHOP is usually more effective the second time around. I saw the same in research back then too, so I believe him. But in 4 years things may have changed, so you need to ask what's new.

[Russ70]

Sorry for the result of the scan. My Doctor said that if it comes back in 2 and a half years, it would be more chemo, but if it came back before that, it would be stem cell treatment. That may be to do with with my age (51) maybe. Never even mentioned Car T. I was in remission in January of last year.

[Charlie120920]

I’m sorry to hear that the cancer has returned. I had RCHOP as my first chemo and that didn’t work for me so they immediately put me on RGDP and that didn’t work either. My Lymphoma transformed from very slow growing to very aggressive and the lump I had I. My chest grew to 10.5 cms. I managed to get accepted for CAR-T Cell (I’m 56) and I had my infusion in March last year. My first scan after that in April showed that the cancer had completely gone. I remain in remission and am convinced that CAR-T saved my life. I hope that whatever is recommended as the next treatment works well for your wife and she becomes cancer-free.

[Lizard28]

I finished my treatment in December 2018, I found a lump in my neck again 1 month later, it was biopsied and it was back again. I also worried that it had turned aggressive but no it wasn’t. As I don’t have “B “ symptoms they decided to put me on watch and wait and I’m still on it to date, bloods getting done every 6 months to keep an eye on it. Fingers crossed for the results

[Jean49]

I had RCHOP in 2016 but was only able to complete 4 cycles because of complications. My oncologist had used two other treatments So, because of my age, 65 at the time, he didn’t want to wait longer for RCHOP as an option. My last treatment was 2 years ago with thalidomide and Rituxan. It seemed to work the best so far. As someone else noted, follicular NHL isn’t considered curable so we just try to stay as healthy as we can and hope for new treatment options to come along.

[LarryK]

I am sorry I did not see this post sooner about R-CHOP failing to treat lymphoma.When R-CHOP failed for me my doctor switched to Bendamustine + R and it worked better than expected. I am posting this now for anyone experiencing the same thing.