blood disorders
Non Hodgkin Lymphomas
Staging of Non Hodgkin Lymphomas
Imaging studies Bone marrow biopsy Blood tests (including tests of liver and kidney function) Many people with non-Hodgkin lymphomas have disease that has spread at the time of diagnosis. In only 10 to 30% of people, the disease is limited to one region. People with these lymphomas undergo similar Staging procedures as people with Staging is important because the treatment and the prognosis are based on the stage. Several procedures are used to stage or assess non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Basic blood tests, including a complete blood count and tests of liver and kidney function, are done along with tests for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Infection and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) combined with computed tomography ( Bone Marrow Examination may be done, particularly when the blood tests show anemia or low platelet counts. In some types of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, the PET-CT can reliably detect bone marrow involvement, so a bone marrow biopsy may not always be necessary. In other types of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, the PET-CT cannot reliably detect bone marrow involvement and a bone marrow biopsy may be needed if staging would change the choice of treatment. The disease is classified into four stages based on the extent of its spread (I, II, III, IV). The higher the number, the more the lymphoma has spread. Limited stage disease includes stages I and II; advanced stage disease includes stages III and IV. In stages I and II, if non-Hodgkin lymphoma is present in an organ outside the lymph system, it is classified as stage IE or IIE. Bulky disease is the term used when there is a tumor mass in the chest, the size of which may be different for different types of lymphomas. 