Hodgkins Lymphoma ABVD

sandybe
sandybe Member Posts: 40
edited March 2014 in Lymphoma (Hodgkin and Non-Hodgkin) #1
I am battling Hodgkins for the second time. I have noticed that most people have been treated with CHOP. I had ABVD, is there anyone aware of the difference between the two?
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Comments

  • ldot123
    ldot123 Member Posts: 272
    #2
    Sorry to hear about the second go round. I am not sure what the difference is but I have heard good things about ABVD. I had Hodgkins 20 years ago and was treated with MOPP. Quite a toxic cocktail but it did the trick. I don't think it used much anymore. I also had radiation over my whole torso. Because of that, it may be why I got colon cancer recently so heads up on that. If you have rad over the abs get a colonscopy down the road. Hope things go well as I am sure they will. Cheers, Lance
  • jessicawinters
    jessicawinters Member Posts: 7
    #3
    I don't know anything about CHOP, but I was treated for Stage 2A Hodgkin's with ABVD (8 total treatments) and then localized radiation. I have been in remission now for almost 3 years. They don't know why I got it, but they were able to get rid of it. Good luck with your treatments. Hope things go well this time!!
  • sandybe
    sandybe Member Posts: 40
    #4
    jessicawinters said:

    I don't know anything about CHOP, but I was treated for Stage 2A Hodgkin's with ABVD (8 total treatments) and then localized radiation. I have been in remission now for almost 3 years. They don't know why I got it, but they were able to get rid of it. Good luck with your treatments. Hope things go well this time!!

    I didn't have radiation the first time, but had 12 treatments of ABVD in place of radiation. The hematologist was hoping to not have to do radiation because of the site being a mediastinal node. He played the odds and lost, because now it came back and the radiation was the next course of action. I hope it works for me like it did for you. Thanks for your replies
  • Racht
    Racht Member Posts: 38
    #5
    sandybe said:

    I didn't have radiation the first time, but had 12 treatments of ABVD in place of radiation. The hematologist was hoping to not have to do radiation because of the site being a mediastinal node. He played the odds and lost, because now it came back and the radiation was the next course of action. I hope it works for me like it did for you. Thanks for your replies

    site
    Hi there,
    I had ABVD too. Feel free and visit my site - just posted it. http://web.me.com/rmt0912 Email me anytime!
  • tarheis
    tarheis Member Posts: 4
    #6
    ldot123 said:

    Sorry to hear about the second go round. I am not sure what the difference is but I have heard good things about ABVD. I had Hodgkins 20 years ago and was treated with MOPP. Quite a toxic cocktail but it did the trick. I don't think it used much anymore. I also had radiation over my whole torso. Because of that, it may be why I got colon cancer recently so heads up on that. If you have rad over the abs get a colonscopy down the road. Hope things go well as I am sure they will. Cheers, Lance

    your post
    I was treated with MOPPABVD and radiation. Lots of problems from the Mopp and and radiation to the entire mantel 15 years ago as you know isn't like it is today. Do you have any chest wall or bone pain from the radiation? Did you have your spleen out? I am feeling the area where my spleen is (they left it in cause I was too sick and they didn't think I would survive the surgery) I feel like something is stuck there almost like it might have gotten bigger and I have a pressure and stabbing pain there?
  • kpc5988
    kpc5988 Member Posts: 9
    #7
    sandybe said:

    I didn't have radiation the first time, but had 12 treatments of ABVD in place of radiation. The hematologist was hoping to not have to do radiation because of the site being a mediastinal node. He played the odds and lost, because now it came back and the radiation was the next course of action. I hope it works for me like it did for you. Thanks for your replies

    finished with ABVD & radiation
    Sandybe, hope the treatments are going well. I just went through three cycles of ABVD and 20 sessions of radiation. It got hard at times but in the long run it worked. I have been cancer free for about 3 months now. As I was going through everything, I think I hit every bump in the road possible in regards to everything that could go wrong did. So if you have any questions or just need someone to talk to you can email me at kcollins@cccymca.org. Stay Well!
  • sandybe
    sandybe Member Posts: 40
    #8
    kpc5988 said:

    finished with ABVD & radiation
    Sandybe, hope the treatments are going well. I just went through three cycles of ABVD and 20 sessions of radiation. It got hard at times but in the long run it worked. I have been cancer free for about 3 months now. As I was going through everything, I think I hit every bump in the road possible in regards to everything that could go wrong did. So if you have any questions or just need someone to talk to you can email me at kcollins@cccymca.org. Stay Well!

    Thank you!
    I am finished with my treatments as well, and hope it will be done with. My last radiation treatment was July 4 of this year. There were some bumps in the road, it took over 2 months to complete the 20 rad treatments, but they were completed. Now I'm currently waiting for things to clear up before they can do more testing to see where I stand. Personally I feel it is gone, and that's all that matters right now. Are you a two time survivor kpc? If you are, how long before the recurrence and where did your Lymphoma start?

    Sandy
  • kpc5988
    kpc5988 Member Posts: 9
    #9
    Sandy,
    I'm a two-time survivor. My first cancer was testicular cancer in 2000 and I was diagnosed in February 2008 with Hodgkins Lymphoma. Two very different cancers with two very different treatment roads. With testicular I had three cycles of chemo that included cysplatin blio and I can't remember the last one. With the hodgkins, it sounds like our treatments were very similar, ABVD for three cycles and 20 treatments of radiation. The thing that was the hard part was with my blood counts, they were all over the map, if one was up another one was down. It was different giving me problems every time I went in. Very Frustating and I really had to be patient because a lot times the treatment would get delayed due to my blood work. I encountered alot of the same road blocks that you did it seems like. How are your test results so far? Let me know if I can help with anything.
  • catwoman6
    catwoman6 Member Posts: 20
    #10
    sandybe said:

    Thank you!
    I am finished with my treatments as well, and hope it will be done with. My last radiation treatment was July 4 of this year. There were some bumps in the road, it took over 2 months to complete the 20 rad treatments, but they were completed. Now I'm currently waiting for things to clear up before they can do more testing to see where I stand. Personally I feel it is gone, and that's all that matters right now. Are you a two time survivor kpc? If you are, how long before the recurrence and where did your Lymphoma start?

    Sandy

    Hodgkins Disease and Radiation
    Hi Sandy: I also have Hodgkins Disease. I went thru 12 treatments of ABVD. My last treatment was on 9/22/08. I just had another PET/CT on 12/10/08 and the disease is back. I have a doc appt tomorrow and I believe she will tell me that I'll have to go thru radiation. The doc already told me radiation to the chest area has terrible side effects. Like it being hard to swallow and it will feel like something is always stuck in your throat. Not to mention all the heart burn and sometimes it will be hard to breath. Did you have any of those symptoms? I'd appreciate it if you could just let me know how bad it really is and if there is anything you can do to relieve these horrible symptoms.

    Hope all is well with you and that you are now cancer free.

    Thanks!!!!!
  • Denise3
    Denise3 Member Posts: 14
    #11
    catwoman6 said:

    Hodgkins Disease and Radiation
    Hi Sandy: I also have Hodgkins Disease. I went thru 12 treatments of ABVD. My last treatment was on 9/22/08. I just had another PET/CT on 12/10/08 and the disease is back. I have a doc appt tomorrow and I believe she will tell me that I'll have to go thru radiation. The doc already told me radiation to the chest area has terrible side effects. Like it being hard to swallow and it will feel like something is always stuck in your throat. Not to mention all the heart burn and sometimes it will be hard to breath. Did you have any of those symptoms? I'd appreciate it if you could just let me know how bad it really is and if there is anything you can do to relieve these horrible symptoms.

    Hope all is well with you and that you are now cancer free.

    Thanks!!!!!

    Radiation treatments
    Hi catwoman: I went through 12 treatments of ABVD like you but I also had 3 weeks of daily rad treatments on my chest and neck area. It did get very hard to swallow and it felt as if I had a severe sunburn inside my throat and chest, not to mention the heart burn. It helps to eat very cool things like ice cream, jello, and sherbets if your stomach will tolerate it. I had times when nausea was a real problem. I worry now about the long term side effects such as breast cancer, brittle ribs, or lung cancer. Rad treatments on the neck and chest almost will certainly kill your thyroid; which for me has already happened we are now trying to get my thyroid meds at the right level for my body which I will be taking for the rest of my life. I have been in remission since April after my transplant. I had a pet and ct about 3 1/2 weeks ago. they saw something on ct but not pet so they said wait and see. I hope all goes well for you and maybe my info will help you some. I'll keep you in my prayers.
    Merry Christmas!!!!!
  • sandybe
    sandybe Member Posts: 40
    #12
    catwoman6 said:

    Hodgkins Disease and Radiation
    Hi Sandy: I also have Hodgkins Disease. I went thru 12 treatments of ABVD. My last treatment was on 9/22/08. I just had another PET/CT on 12/10/08 and the disease is back. I have a doc appt tomorrow and I believe she will tell me that I'll have to go thru radiation. The doc already told me radiation to the chest area has terrible side effects. Like it being hard to swallow and it will feel like something is always stuck in your throat. Not to mention all the heart burn and sometimes it will be hard to breath. Did you have any of those symptoms? I'd appreciate it if you could just let me know how bad it really is and if there is anything you can do to relieve these horrible symptoms.

    Hope all is well with you and that you are now cancer free.

    Thanks!!!!!

    catwoman6
    I wish you all the best in your radiation treatments. The most important piece of advice I could give you is to tell the nurses or doctor immediately if you have any side effect. The do have several things they can give you to help you through it. Some people fly through radiation with little difficulties, and hopefully you will be one of those. I hate to tell you how horrible it was, because not everyone has these terrible side effects. I finished my rads on July 4 of this year and will only be having a CT scan next month due to waiting for the inflammation to subside to get a true reading. Please tell them of any little side effect you have, because with rads to the chest it can quickly lead into something worse. My jaw ligaments inflamed, this was very painful but easily fixed with dexamethasone. The swallowing was difficult in the first week. I quickly discovered things would get stuck in my throat and had to be very difficult. My throat was so sore after the first week I could not even swallow water, when I tried the pain was horrible and the swelling so severe I would choke on it. At first they gave me an anesthetic swallow to try to mask the pain, this didn't work, so in order to swallow a meal replacement drink I had to use the anesthetic swallow, morphine, and use dexamethasone once again. This worked quite well for a few weeks until I developed pneumonia. They had to stop the treatments and finally a month later we finished the last 3 treatments. This of course brought back the pneumonia and has taken several months to clear. Although I think having pneumonia in the summer did not help with the heat and humidity it made breathing more difficult. They say typically most of these side effects happen following radiation treatments not during them. I hope for the best for you and let me know how things are going. I know part of my problem was that I did not slow down my social life or schedule with the children. I'm sure this delayed healing for sure but my children mean a lot to me, and in order to hide my suffering I had to continue as usual in front of them. Please, if you remember anything, remember to ask for help if you have even the slightest discomfort, they can help you.

    Sandy
  • catwoman6
    catwoman6 Member Posts: 20
    #13
    Denise3 said:

    Radiation treatments
    Hi catwoman: I went through 12 treatments of ABVD like you but I also had 3 weeks of daily rad treatments on my chest and neck area. It did get very hard to swallow and it felt as if I had a severe sunburn inside my throat and chest, not to mention the heart burn. It helps to eat very cool things like ice cream, jello, and sherbets if your stomach will tolerate it. I had times when nausea was a real problem. I worry now about the long term side effects such as breast cancer, brittle ribs, or lung cancer. Rad treatments on the neck and chest almost will certainly kill your thyroid; which for me has already happened we are now trying to get my thyroid meds at the right level for my body which I will be taking for the rest of my life. I have been in remission since April after my transplant. I had a pet and ct about 3 1/2 weeks ago. they saw something on ct but not pet so they said wait and see. I hope all goes well for you and maybe my info will help you some. I'll keep you in my prayers.
    Merry Christmas!!!!!

    Stem Cell Transplant
    Hi Denise: Thanks for the info. I hope you are doing well too. Since I wrote last, I have been to the doc. My Hodgkins did come back and they want to do a stem cell transplant with high-dose chemo. Did you go thru that too and if so how was it? and how long were you in the hospital? They are telling me I'll be in the hospital for at least a month. By any chance, are you in the Pittsburgh area? I don't know which hospital to go to. Shadyside or West Penn. I still have to see another doc to get a second opinion. My doc right now wants to also get another biopsy done on one of these lymph nodes to make sure its still Hodgkins. Any info you can give me will be greatly appreciated and Merry Christmas to you too.
  • catwoman6
    catwoman6 Member Posts: 20
    #14
    sandybe said:

    catwoman6
    I wish you all the best in your radiation treatments. The most important piece of advice I could give you is to tell the nurses or doctor immediately if you have any side effect. The do have several things they can give you to help you through it. Some people fly through radiation with little difficulties, and hopefully you will be one of those. I hate to tell you how horrible it was, because not everyone has these terrible side effects. I finished my rads on July 4 of this year and will only be having a CT scan next month due to waiting for the inflammation to subside to get a true reading. Please tell them of any little side effect you have, because with rads to the chest it can quickly lead into something worse. My jaw ligaments inflamed, this was very painful but easily fixed with dexamethasone. The swallowing was difficult in the first week. I quickly discovered things would get stuck in my throat and had to be very difficult. My throat was so sore after the first week I could not even swallow water, when I tried the pain was horrible and the swelling so severe I would choke on it. At first they gave me an anesthetic swallow to try to mask the pain, this didn't work, so in order to swallow a meal replacement drink I had to use the anesthetic swallow, morphine, and use dexamethasone once again. This worked quite well for a few weeks until I developed pneumonia. They had to stop the treatments and finally a month later we finished the last 3 treatments. This of course brought back the pneumonia and has taken several months to clear. Although I think having pneumonia in the summer did not help with the heat and humidity it made breathing more difficult. They say typically most of these side effects happen following radiation treatments not during them. I hope for the best for you and let me know how things are going. I know part of my problem was that I did not slow down my social life or schedule with the children. I'm sure this delayed healing for sure but my children mean a lot to me, and in order to hide my suffering I had to continue as usual in front of them. Please, if you remember anything, remember to ask for help if you have even the slightest discomfort, they can help you.

    Sandy

    Hodgkins Disease and Radiation
    Thanks Sandy for all the info. Denise gave me info too. They both sound so horrible!!!!! I hope you are doing much better now. I went to see my doc the day after I wrote to you. The Hodgkins did come back and now they want to do a stem cell transplant with high-dose chemo. Did you have to go thru that too? and if so, how was it? If you are in the pittsburgh area, do you recommend one hospital over another? My choices are Shadyside or West Penn depending on which doc I go to. They also want to biopsy another lymph node to make sure its still Hodgkins. Not into that either. Well, I wish you and your children a very Merry Christmas. Thanks again!!!!
  • Denise3
    Denise3 Member Posts: 14
    #15
    catwoman6 said:

    Stem Cell Transplant
    Hi Denise: Thanks for the info. I hope you are doing well too. Since I wrote last, I have been to the doc. My Hodgkins did come back and they want to do a stem cell transplant with high-dose chemo. Did you go thru that too and if so how was it? and how long were you in the hospital? They are telling me I'll be in the hospital for at least a month. By any chance, are you in the Pittsburgh area? I don't know which hospital to go to. Shadyside or West Penn. I still have to see another doc to get a second opinion. My doc right now wants to also get another biopsy done on one of these lymph nodes to make sure its still Hodgkins. Any info you can give me will be greatly appreciated and Merry Christmas to you too.

    Transplant
    Hi Catwoman: I am doing well at this time thanks. I had my transplant April 23 of this year and was in the hospital for3-4 weeks after. They did the high dose chemo to kill everything then they gave me back my stem cells. The chemo was very rough on me. I was very sick but the nurses kept giving me meds to help which did some. They waited for me to spike a fever then started me on heavy antibiotics. After that I began to feel better and better.Through it all they say walk the halls as much as possible to keep mobile and I did even when I felt crappy. When they released me they sent me to the Hope Lodge to stay close to hospital because I live so far away, they said I would probably be ther a few weeks with daily visits to the hospital for blood counts and such but I did so well and my counts came back up so quickly that they sent me home after two days. I'm sorry I'm not from your area and can't give you any hospital advice. I live in the panhandle of Florida, and had to go to the University of Alabama Hospital in Birmingham. That was the closest hospital to me that does transplants; it's 4 hours drive from where I live. They are an excellent teaching hospital though. They took great care of me. I would say definitely get a second opinion. Be sure exactly what kind of cancer you have so you get the proper treatments. Let me know how things go for you, and You will be in my prayers. God bless you.
  • sandybe
    sandybe Member Posts: 40
    #16
    catwoman6 said:

    Hodgkins Disease and Radiation
    Thanks Sandy for all the info. Denise gave me info too. They both sound so horrible!!!!! I hope you are doing much better now. I went to see my doc the day after I wrote to you. The Hodgkins did come back and now they want to do a stem cell transplant with high-dose chemo. Did you have to go thru that too? and if so, how was it? If you are in the pittsburgh area, do you recommend one hospital over another? My choices are Shadyside or West Penn depending on which doc I go to. They also want to biopsy another lymph node to make sure its still Hodgkins. Not into that either. Well, I wish you and your children a very Merry Christmas. Thanks again!!!!

    stem cell
    Hi catwoman, I have not had a stem cell. You are ahead of me on this one, and I hope to not catch up with you either. I find out next month if the radiation worked and hopefully everything will be over and done with this time. I can't help either with hospital information, I'm from Canada. I wish you the best and please let me know what your decision is and how things are going.
  • kpc5988
    kpc5988 Member Posts: 9
    #17
    sandybe said:

    Thank you!
    I am finished with my treatments as well, and hope it will be done with. My last radiation treatment was July 4 of this year. There were some bumps in the road, it took over 2 months to complete the 20 rad treatments, but they were completed. Now I'm currently waiting for things to clear up before they can do more testing to see where I stand. Personally I feel it is gone, and that's all that matters right now. Are you a two time survivor kpc? If you are, how long before the recurrence and where did your Lymphoma start?

    Sandy

    Sorry for the late reply
    I've been really busy between work and getting ready for the holidays. Congrats Sandybe on finishing treatment. Hope tests results came back with good news. To answer your questions, I'm a two time survivor but two different types of Cancer, Testicular and Hodgkins so it's been two different roads through treatment and recovery. Definitely not a path that I would recommend but I've been very lucky through both. I am cancer free from both types as of October 8th, 2008. The Hodkins was located underneath my left collar bone and affected upto 12 lymph nodes that I could see in the neck region but did not spread to anywhere else.Like I said very lucky!Hope this reply finds you well with good wishes for the new year!
  • dpomroy
    dpomroy Member Posts: 135
    #18
    catwoman6 said:

    Hodgkins Disease and Radiation
    Thanks Sandy for all the info. Denise gave me info too. They both sound so horrible!!!!! I hope you are doing much better now. I went to see my doc the day after I wrote to you. The Hodgkins did come back and now they want to do a stem cell transplant with high-dose chemo. Did you have to go thru that too? and if so, how was it? If you are in the pittsburgh area, do you recommend one hospital over another? My choices are Shadyside or West Penn depending on which doc I go to. They also want to biopsy another lymph node to make sure its still Hodgkins. Not into that either. Well, I wish you and your children a very Merry Christmas. Thanks again!!!!

    stem cell transplant
    I am so sorry that you have to go through all this! I also had Hodgkins, treated with ABVD, then radiation. Mine came back and I needed the stem cell transplant. I had mine at the University of Minnesota in August of 2002. I am happy to say that I am cancer free. The process for having the transplants are so much better now. It isn't easy, but it is going to be worth it. If you have questions or just want to vent, I'm here.
  • flowingchi
    flowingchi Member Posts: 5
    #19
    catwoman6 said:

    Stem Cell Transplant
    Hi Denise: Thanks for the info. I hope you are doing well too. Since I wrote last, I have been to the doc. My Hodgkins did come back and they want to do a stem cell transplant with high-dose chemo. Did you go thru that too and if so how was it? and how long were you in the hospital? They are telling me I'll be in the hospital for at least a month. By any chance, are you in the Pittsburgh area? I don't know which hospital to go to. Shadyside or West Penn. I still have to see another doc to get a second opinion. My doc right now wants to also get another biopsy done on one of these lymph nodes to make sure its still Hodgkins. Any info you can give me will be greatly appreciated and Merry Christmas to you too.

    what did you decide about the stem cell
    How is it going. My husband must make a decision about stem cell transplant and it is a hard decision to make if
    the first treatment RCHOP removed the cancer ... Any comments.
  • cpereira
    cpereira Member Posts: 1
    #20
    Hodgkin's Survivor w/ ABVD
    I am 2.5 years out of Stage II Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I had 24 weeks of biweekly treatment of ABVD, and it did such wonders I was lucky enough not even to have to do radiation! I fared pretty well with the treatment, never had to have a blood transfusion, and made it over halfway through before having to receive a procrit shot (boosting red blood cells). ABVD was great for me, and I hope it does the same for you! Need anything feel free to contact me casey.pereira@cancer.org
    ps - did anyone else become a ginger ale coneseuir after treatment? i lived off that stuff haha
  • Peter G
    Peter G Member Posts: 5
    #21
    ABVD
    Hello.

    I just got hit with a recurrence of Hodgkin's that was in remission for more than five years. It was Stage I the first time, but this time its Stage III. They're using ABVD on me. Sad to say on my part, I haven't been dealing with the whole thing very well. They gave me the diagnosis on Tuesday and started chemotherapy on Wednesday. Everything happened so fast, that I'm just now starting to feel the effects of everything. There are so many things going on that I can't figure out if what I feel is a side effect of the ABVD or if it's a side effect of the anti-nausea medicine or the neulestra shot they gave me.

    As to the answer to the question: I think CHOP is more commonly used to tread NHL.

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