Surgery for Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma
Surgery is often used to get a biopsy sample to diagnose and classify non-Hodgkin lymphoma, but it’s rarely used as a form of treatment.
When is surgery used to treat non-Hodgkin lymphoma?
Rarely, surgery may be used to treat lymphomas that start in the spleen or in certain organs outside the lymph system, such as the thyroid or stomach, and that have not spread beyond these organs. But for treating lymphoma that’s completely confined to one area, radiation therapy is usually preferred over surgery.
More information about Surgery
For more general information about surgery as a treatment for cancer, see Cancer Surgery.
To learn about some of the side effects listed here and how to manage them, see Managing Cancer-related Side Effects.
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The American Cancer Society medical and editorial content team
Our team is made up of doctors and oncology certified nurses with deep knowledge of cancer care as well as journalists, editors, and translators with extensive experience in medical writing.
Freedman AS, Freidberg JW, Aster JC. Clinical presentation and initial evaluation of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. In: Post T, ed. Uptodate. UpToDate; 2022. Accessed September 13, 2023.
National Cancer Institute. Physician Data Query (PDQ). Adult Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma Treatment. 2023. Accessed at https://www.cancer.gov/types/lymphoma/patient/adult-nhl-treatment-pdq on November 30, 2023.
National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN). Practice Guidelines in Oncology: B-Cell Lymphomas. Version 6.2023. Accessed at https://www.nccn.org/professionals/physician_gls/pdf/b-cell.pdf on November 30, 2023.
National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN). Practice Guidelines in Oncology: T-Cell Lymphomas. Version 1.2023. Accessed at https://www.nccn.org/professionals/physician_gls/pdf/t-cell.pdf on November 30, 2023.
Sapkota S, Shaikh H. Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. InStatPearls [Internet] 2023. StatPearls Publishing.
Last Revised: February 15, 2024
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