Cancer

Pathology of the biopsy specimen

We just had a meeting with the hematologist and neurologist. They told me that after careful deliberation in their multidisciplinary team of experts, they concluded that the diagnosis and treatment of T-cell lymphoma would be the most fitting (lymphoma of the brain are very rare and most often (95%) they are B-cell lymphoma, so T-cel lymphoma are incredibly rare). After the appointment with the neurologist and hematologist, Adrienne and I met with the pathologist where he explained what they did and saw. The second biopsy didn’t necessarily give new information but reinforced what they found in the first one. He told that they did find clonality in the T-cells of both biopsies, that there are many T-cells and that even though diagnosis is not a 100% sure, treatment of T-cell lymphoma is beneficial. What will follow is a very long and harsh schema of chemotherapy. This likely means weeks in the hospital. Tomorrow a new MRI will be made, and I will talk to hematologist about the details of the treatment.
Primary central nervous system lymphoma (PCNSL) are not the worst type of brain cancer, of course, any type of cancer is bad. But at least with PCNSL the chances for complete remission are not zero. Because T-cell lymphoma are so rare and my case is so unique, there are no survival statistics available.