SLL and CLL are the Same Disease

Small lymphocytic lymphoma (SLL) is a cancer of the immune system. It affects infection-fighting white blood cells called B-cells.

SLL is one type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, along with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). The two cancers are basically the same disease, and they're treated in the same way. The only difference is each cancer is located in a different part of the body.

In SLL, cancer cells are mainly in the lymph nodes. In CLL, most of the cancer cells are in the blood and bone marrow.

From the getgo, my lymphoma has been in the lymph nodes and in the blood and bone marrow which I was told 13 years ago that my cancer was in Stage IV but in my particular case that did not mean I was terminal.

           

SLL/CLL is the most common form of leukemia among adults in the United States, making up 37%  of cases.  In 2019, doctors will diagnosed about 21,000 new U.S. cases of SLL/CLL. Each person’s lifetime risk of getting SLL/CLL is 1 in 175 or .5% which is extremely low.

The data shows that types of cancer can be passed down from one generation to the next.  My father had a type Leukemia and I am sure that my cancer in part came from him.  But, my mother had two forms of breast cancer and in her late 80's was diagnosed with Lymphoma but several years after I had been diagnosed with Lymphoma...

My brother and sister, 8 years younger and 4 years older respectively, have yet to be diagnosed with any type of cancer.  Knock on wood...  but, I am sure it only came to me and quite possibly my daughter...