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Mother just diagnosed with follicular lymphoma.
Hello, my mother was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma in June 2025. We were advised that it is a slow-growing, low grade lymphoma. As my mom is asymptomatic at this time, the doctor informed us that treatment would be held for now. He said they only treat when symptoms occur. He told us about the symptoms to watch for in the future.
What bothered me about it was he stated that the treatment seems to be chemotherapy that is toxic and it can give her leukemia. He did not give us medication names yet. Also stated that radiation is an option, but listed off all of these horrible side effects.
One of my reasons for posting is to gain some insight on this disease and the treatment. options. I’ve searched a lot so far, but I haven’t looked into how the different medications for treatment or types of treatment may be beneficial or for her diagnosis. I just was t sure if someone could provide some insight on 1. The types of chemotherapy medication treatments out there for this condition by experience and/or 2. Alternative treatments, such as immunotherapy.
Thank you for your help on this matter and for reading.
- Lisa
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Hi @lmatherton13 It’s been quite a while since we’ve chatted. I just wanted to check in with you to see how your mom is doing. Is your mom still in the active surveillance phase or has she begun treatment?
I'm in the same boat as your mom. I'm wondering what it would be like to not treat as the treatment sounds horrid. Have you discovered any information about that?
Welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect, Beth. It looks like you have a recent diagnosis of Follicular Lymphoma. So it’s understandable to have some questions about ‘what’s next’…
To provide you with a little information about Follicular Lymphoma (FL) I’m posting a couple of links to get you started. These articles should help introduce the disease and the types of treatments available. Keeping in mind that this is generally a very slowly progressing condition, though there are different sub-types of FL. So your doctor will help you make the determination of whether you’ll require treatment or not at this time, based on results of your labs and/or other testing that’s been done.
Here are the links:
From Mayo Clinic: https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/follicular-lymphoma/symptoms-causes/syc-20584732
From Healthline.com:
https://www.healthline.com/health/follicular-lymphoma
If you don’t mind sharing a little more about your story, what were the symptoms that led to your diagnosis? Have you had a consultation with your oncologist yet?