Treatment
Treatment includes dose-adjusted EPOCH with Rituxan (rituximab).
The effects of the chemotherapy, as with all cancers, depend on the time of diagnosis. With faster growing cancers, such as Burkitt's, the cancer actually responds faster than with slower growing cancers. This rapid response to chemotherapy can be hazardous to the patient, as a phenomenon called "tumor lysis syndrome" could occur. Close monitoring of the patient and adequate hydration is essential during the process.
Chemotherapy
- cyclophosphamide
- doxorubicin
- vincristine
- methotrexate
- cytarabine
- ifosfamide
- etoposide
- rituximab
Other treatments are immunotherapy, bone marrow transplants, stem cell transplant, surgery to remove the tumor, and radiotherapy.
Read more about this topic: Burkitt's Lymphoma
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“Ambivalence reaches the level of schizophrenia in our treatment of violence among the young. Parents do not encourage violence, but neither do they take up arms against the industries which encourage it. Parents hide their eyes from the books and comics, slasher films, videos and lyrics which form the texture of an adolescent culture. While all successful societies have inhibited instinct, ours encourages it. Or at least we profess ourselves powerless to interfere with it.”
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