Standard Treatment Patients with this tumor have an extremely poor prognosis , most patients not surviving even one year after diagnosis.
After the diagnosis is established by FNA or a cutting needle biopsy , aggressive radiation therapy and chemotherapy is recommended for three weeks. No treatment is given for the following two weeks, then a thyroidectomy is performed. Radiation and chemotherapy are resumed two weeks after the operation. This treatment is usually not curative, but it appears to offer the best palliation and the best hope for survival.
Five-Year Survival About 5 percent, the average survival being less than six months
Primary Lymphoma of the Thyroid
Standard Treatment These patients have a rapidly enlarging thyroid mass, often with pressure symptoms. At least a third have thyroiditis (Hashimoto's disease) and most have limited-stage disease. The prognosis depends on the lymphoma subtype as well as on the stage.
Treatment is similar to that for any B-cell lymphoma arising outside lymph nodes . Since most patients have diffuse lymphomas, they tend to be treated after diagnosis by open biopsy with aggressive third-generation combination chemotherapy programs ( see "Lymphomas: Non-Hodgkin's" ).
