11 years ago, François Hardy learned that she had lymphoma, a form of cancer that affects the entire lymphatic system, the main part of our immune system. She then underwent chemotherapy and began a fight against cancer.
But little by little, her condition deteriorated and a few weeks ago, she had to be hospitalized. Today, she barely comes out of “three weeks of unconsciousness with eight days of coma” and it is from her convalescent bed that she granted an interview with RTL.
80 types of lymphoma have been identified by the World Health Organization (WHO). Very variable in severity and course, they are essentially classified into two main categories: Hodgkin’s lymphomas, also called Hodgkin’s disease (they represent less than one in 7 cases) and non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas (the most frequent), of which the number of new cases has increased by almost 5% per year over the past decades.
Over 14,000 new cases are diagnosed each year, making it one of the most prevalent forms of cancer.
Lymphoma is not cancer that develops in a specific organ (such as breast cancer or lung cancer, for example). But it develops throughout the lymphatic system: this system brings together organs such as the spleen, thymus, bone marrow as well as ganglia and a vascular network allowing the circulation of lymph.
When certain lymphocytes (a type of white blood cell found in the blood) start to multiply abnormally and out of control. Little by little, these cells accumulate and this anarchic multiplication ends up creating tumors called lymphomas.
Like all cancers, lymphoma is treated with chemotherapy and radiation therapy. And in recent months, there have been new targeted therapies prescribed only in case of relapse, if other treatments have not worked.
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