🧬 Ten common cancers
Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
It is not one disease. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma is a group of cancers of the lymph system, and NCI says the outlook depends on which type it is.
What it is
Non-Hodgkin lymphoma forms in the lymph system, the network that carries fluid and immune cells around the body.
There are two main kinds of lymphoma, Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin. Non-Hodgkin is the larger group, and it really is a group: NCI notes that the outlook depends on the specific type. Some types grow very slowly and may be watched rather than treated at first. Others grow quickly and are treated quickly. Both are called non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
That is worth knowing before you read anything else about it, because a statistic about non-Hodgkin lymphoma as a whole may not describe the specific type someone has.
What to watch for
NCI's list:
- Swelling in the lymph nodes of the neck, underarm, groin, or stomach
- Fever with no known cause
- Drenching night sweats
- Feeling very tired
- Losing weight with no known cause
- Skin problems
- Pain with no clear explanation
The last three of the fever, sweats, and weight loss trio have a name: doctors call them B symptoms.
Swollen glands on their own are extremely common and almost always an infection. The pattern that matters is swelling that does not settle over weeks, or swelling together with fevers and night sweats that have no obvious cause.
What raises the risk
NCI's list is mostly about the immune system rather than lifestyle.
Things nobody can change: being older, male, or White.
Things related to health history: conditions that weaken immunity, including HIV and AIDS, inherited immune disorders, and autoimmune disease. Certain infections, which NCI names as HTLV-1, Epstein-Barr virus, and Helicobacter pylori. Taking immune-suppressing drugs after an organ transplant.
There is no smoking-and-lung-cancer style link here. For most people diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, there is no identifiable cause, and nothing they did brought it on.
Is there a test before symptoms start?
No. NCI states that it does not have evidence-based information about screening for lymphoma, and none about prevention either.
One note on the numbers on this page. Most cancers are staged as local, regional, or distant. Lymphoma is staged differently, using stages I through IV, because it starts in a system that is already spread throughout the body. So survival figures for lymphoma cannot be compared side by side with the ones on the other pages here.
The numbers
These describe groups of people, not any one person. Each one names the agency it came from and the years it covers.
- New cases each year, United States
- About 80,620
- American Cancer Society projection, published by NCI SEER · 2024 estimate
- Deaths each year
- About 20,140
- American Cancer Society projection, published by NCI SEER · 2024 estimate
- Share of all new cancers
- 4.0 percent
- NCI SEER
- Median age at diagnosis
- 67
- NCI SEER
- Five-year relative survival, all stages together
- 74.3 percent
- NCI SEER · diagnoses 2014-2020
- Five-year relative survival, stage I
- 87.0 percent
- NCI SEER · diagnoses 2014-2020
- Five-year relative survival, stage IV
- 64.2 percent
- NCI SEER · diagnoses 2014-2020
What people get wrong
Myth: A swollen lymph node means lymphoma.
What the evidence says: Almost always it means an infection. Nodes are part of the immune system and swelling is their normal job. NCI lists swelling in the lymph nodes as a symptom of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, but a node that stays swollen for weeks with no infection to explain it is the thing worth checking, not a node that comes up with a sore throat.
Read the sourceMyth: Stage IV means the worst possible news.
What the evidence says: Stage means spread, not hopelessness, and lymphoma is the clearest example. SEER records five-year relative survival of 64.2 percent for stage IV non-Hodgkin lymphoma, compared with 87.0 percent at stage I. Those are group averages from past diagnoses, and they describe populations rather than any one person.
Read the sourceMyth: There should be a screening test.
What the evidence says: There is none. NCI states in its own words that it does not have evidence-based information about screening for lymphoma, or about prevention of lymphoma.
Read the source
Words on this page
- Lymph system
- A network of vessels and small glands that carries fluid and immune cells around the body. It is part of how you fight infection.
- Lymph node
- A small gland in that network. Nodes swell when you have an infection, which is normal and common.
- B symptoms
- The name doctors give to a specific trio: fever with no known cause, drenching night sweats, and weight loss with no known cause.
If you want more detail
These pages are longer and go further into the same topic.