When to treat early stage follicular lymphoma

In the curves shown elsewhere in this volume (see Chapter 15) for Stanford advanced stage follicular lymphoma patients, there is a small plateau at about 25%. However, with time this has decreased to less than 10%, and in fact the author saw one of these patients recently with a recurrence after 33 years. As physicians and medical oncologists, we focus on cure and freedom from relapse, but it is important to keep in mind that survival is really the most important parameter.