The "Good" Cancer

I have heard some people say non-Hodgkins follicular lymphoma (FL), is the “good” kind of cancer. I mean yes and no.   

I don’t think there is any “good” cancer. With FL, yes, some are put on a watch and wait as it is present but has not spread, which is different from some cancers. For others like myself, no, it has spread and is present in several areas all the way into the bone marrow and requires immediate treatment.

I remember reading when I was first diagnosed that most people will die of something else before FL, unless it is a more aggressive version or it transforms. Is it an incurable cancer, or isn't it? I and the others in the clinical trial for CAR T-Cell Therapy may be leading the change on that. Time will tell.

Multiple levels of treatment

Being a cancer patient and having been through multiple levels of treatment, as my “good" cancer was resistant to chemotherapy. I have met and interacted with a lot of fellow cancer patients. Many with FL like myself. I have met some who are the lucky ones, who are on watch and wait for years on end with no issues. Others on the other end of the spectrum require immediate treatment.

I have seen success stories like mine, six years and counting, but I have also seen where every option is tried, yet there is no answer. The “good” cancer is relentless.

Meeting others with blood cancer

I became very close friends with a fellow FL patient that I met on Twitter. He was going to go through the same treatment I had done, R-Chop. We spent time talking about it and its side effects. Unfortunately, the R-Chop did not work, and he moved on to another chemo, which also did not work and that qualified him for CAR-T, a different kind than I did, but we also had that experience to share.

Sadly, that did not work either, and my friend then moved on to an alogeneic stem cell transplant, of which I also have experience... That did work to defeat his cancer, but he got graft versus host disease (GVHD) in his lungs, one of the very worst places to get it, as the only answer to that is a lung transplant. It is a catch-22 as you have to be five years out from cancer to get a new set of lungs, and there was not that much time for him or many others in that situation. We lost my friend, and ultimately, it was the treatment that killed him for the “good” kind of cancer.

Remissions followed by relapse

Another woman I befriended with FL that started in her leg, she was a young single mother. The first two types of chemo resulted in brief remission followed by relapse. She qualified to try a new type of CAR-T which seemed to work, but then she relapsed at 60 days; we lost her only a month or so later, leaving a 5-year-old without his mother. A devastating loss.

Hope returns with CAR T

I have also seen success stories of both chemo, transplants and now more and more CAR T. It is a good feeling to see others getting the treatment that gained FDA approval through the trial that I participated in. It's extra special when they announced a complete remission without going through the side effects I experienced in the trial. Feels good to be a part of progress in the fight against cancer.

I am not sure you can consider any type of cancer good. Once you are diagnosed, it is on your mind, in your body and there is no turning back. I guess we can say some are more deadly than others once diagnosed and are more well known to be, and I guess you are lucky not to have gotten that particular type. But I can tell you from experience no cancer diagnosis is good.