“‘You beat cancer by how you live, why you live, and in the manner in which you live’ ~Stuart Scott.”
After posting that quote on his Facebook page in 2014, information about NFL player Eric Berry’s Hodgkin’s Lymphoma was made public.
The professional athlete kept his resilient spirit and powered through treatments to beat the cancer, and even made a return to the league in 2015.
Although his story is incredibly inspiring, there is still much to learn about the rare form of cancer.
RELATED: 5 Simple Lifestyle Changes Help Treat Lymphoma?
The American Cancer Society says Hodgkin’s Lymphoma is a form of cancer that severely impacts the immune system.
Cancer starts when cells start to grow out of control.
Cells in nearly any part of the body can become cancer, and can then spread to other parts of the body.
Classic Hodgkin lymphoma (cHL) accounts for more than 9 in 10 cases of Hodgkin lymphoma in developed countries.
The cancer cells in cHL are called Reed-Sternberg cells.
These cells are usually an abnormal type of B lymphocyte. Enlarged lymph nodes in people with cHL usually have a small number of Reed-Sternberg cells with a lot of normal immune cells around them.
These other immune cells cause most of the swelling in the lymph nodes.
According to the American Cancer Society nodular lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin lymphoma (NLPHL) accounts for about 5% of cases.
The cancer cells in NLPHL are large cells called popcorn cells (because they look like popcorn), which are variants of Reed-Sternberg cells. You may also hear these cells called lymphocytic and histiocytic (L&H) cells.
NLPHL usually starts in lymph nodes in the neck and under the arm. It can occur in people of any age, and is more common in men than in women. This type of HL tends to grow more slowly and is treated differently from the classic types.
Hodgkin Lymphoma Treatment: Less is More
The American Cancer Society reports that chemotherapy and radiation therapy are the main treatments for HL. Depending on the case, one or both of these treatments might be used.
Certain patients might be treated with immunotherapy or with a stem cell transplant, especially if other treatments haven’t worked. Except for biopsy and staging, surgery is rarely used to treat HL.
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