For years, doctors have puzzled over the fact that some patients with follicular lymphoma succumb to the deadly blood cancer within a few years, while others survive for decades, even though their tumor cells look the same under the microscope.Now, researchers believe they’ve solved that mystery.Genetic differences -- not in lymphoma cells, but in immune cells surrounding the tumor -- may determine how aggressive a particular case of follicular lymphoma turns out to be, they said.The finding should help doctors provide patients with more accurate prognoses, and may also open the door to new treatments for a disease for which there is currently no cure."What everyone is working on right now, and what holds a lot of promise, are therapies based on manipulating the immune system,” said lead researcher Dr. Louis M. Staudt, of the National Cancer Institute’s Center for Cancer Research.He said studies have already shown that treatment with immune-based anti-cancer vaccines “does result in remission in some patients."The latest findings appear in the Nov. 18 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.
