Hodgkin's or non-Hodgkin's?

One of the most common questions I hear is whether I have Hodgkin's or non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. It turns out, as I noted in an earlier post, that I have one of the 20+ non-Hodgkin's lymphomas. The prognosis for some of these is not especially encouraging. Non-Hodgkin's lymphomas are apparently particularly problematic when the are found in the nodal lymph system -- this is the what you hear about most often. Fortunately, in my case the lymphoma was "extranodal." While tonsil tissue is lymphatic it is not connected by direct ducts to the larger lymphatic system thus there is a pretty good chance that it has not spread widely. There are some similarly isolated patches of lymphatic tissue in the stomach ('downstream' of the tonsil) and these will be examined endoscopically on Wednesday. (History of Lymphoma Research)