Diagnosing large B-cell lymphoma

Posted by aubrierose @aubrierose, Dec 1, 2025

My mother in law (age 76) had back pain that started in August. She went to the hospital early September and they found lesions that looked metastatic on her spine l2 and L4. They also found compression fracture in her L2. Biopsy for L2 and bone marrow came back as no abnormalities. Her Pet scan showed hyper metabolic foci with the L2 and mixed lesions in L4, left sacrum along with SUV 21 in her abdomen lymph nodes. Her blood tests are coming back normal except low lymphocytes.
We are waiting on results for her L4 biopsy but Kaiser has been so frustratingly slow. It has been 3 months and they still say it appears cancer but she is not diagnosed with cancer. Meanwhile she has gone from 115 to 98lbs and we are scared that cancer could be spreading.

She lives in CA and is Kaiser and Medicare. would Mayo Clinic be able give a second opinion and maybe a faster diagnosis. Her Dr asked her to be referred to an oncologist but since didn’t have a cancer diagnosis they wouldn’t see her.

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Blood Cancers & Disorders Support Group.

Colleen Young, Connect Director | @colleenyoung | Dec 13, 2025

In reply to @aubrierose "@kenc she is near Stanford so I am talking with her about getting a referral to..." + (show)

@aubrierose, how is your mom doing? Has her diagnosis been confirmed?

aubrierose | @aubrierose | Dec 14, 2025

In reply to @colleenyoung "@aubrierose, how is your mom doing? Has her diagnosis been confirmed?" + (show)

@colleenyoung
She has an oncologist appointment tomorrow where we are hoping to find out the exact type but they told us that it’s some type of B cell lymphoma. They said possibly multiply myeloma as well but her bone marrow biopsy said it was normal so I think that means it’s not multiple myeloma.

Colleen Young, Connect Director | @colleenyoung | Dec 24, 2025

In reply to @aubrierose "@colleenyoung She has an oncologist appointment tomorrow where we are hoping to find out the exact..." + (show)

@aubrierose, I hope the appointment provided clarity. Any update?

aubrierose | @aubrierose | Dec 25, 2025

In reply to @colleenyoung "@aubrierose, I hope the appointment provided clarity. Any update?" + (show)

@colleenyoung yes she has been diagnosed with diffuse large cell B cell lymphoma. Apparently there is a lot of necrosis which is why it was so hard to biopsy. She starts radiation next week and chemo in the beginning of January.

Colleen Young, Connect Director | @colleenyoung | Jan 6 10:31am

In reply to @aubrierose "@colleenyoung yes she has been diagnosed with diffuse large cell B cell lymphoma. Apparently there is..." + (show)

@aubrierose, you may be interested in these related discussions:
- Anyone living with aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL)? https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/non-hodgkins-lymphoma-aggressive-bcell/
- Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL): R-CHOP-14 or 21 https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/r-chop-14-or-21/

How is radiation going?

aubrierose | @aubrierose | Jan 6 11:28am

In reply to @colleenyoung "@aubrierose, you may be interested in these related discussions: - Anyone living with aggressive B-cell non-Hodgkin..." + (show)

@colleenyoung she just had one session. She had a rough time that day with vomiting but hopefully it will help her pain

Colleen Young, Connect Director | @colleenyoung | 9 hours ago

In reply to @aubrierose "@colleenyoung she just had one session. She had a rough time that day with vomiting but..." + (show)

@aubrierose, how is treatment going? Have they been able to help control the vomitting? Has treatment started to ease the pain?

aubrierose | @aubrierose | 6 hours ago

In reply to @colleenyoung "@aubrierose, how is treatment going? Have they been able to help control the vomitting? Has treatment..." + (show)

@colleenyoung she is done with radiation and seems to be feeling better. She did her first round of chemotherapy and did it wasn’t too bad. They did the mini rchop due to her age and weight

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