AS WELL AS being leader of the Opposition — for the time being, at any rate — Michael Howard is the Member of Parliament for Folkestone and Hythe. The town of Folkestone has a population of less than 60,000.

There is another group of 60,000 people living in the UK, but scattered around the country. They are those who are living with lymphoma — cancer of the lymphatic system. It would be remarkable if more than 5per cent of the population had ever heard of it, let alone pondered the story of the disease, worried about the problems that it causes to patients and the mysteries it presents to doctors, and the amazing success of its treatment in many cases — hence the need for Lymphatic Cancer Awareness Week, which starts on Saturday.

There are two major varieties of cancer of the lymphatic system: Hodgkins and non-Hodgkins lymphoma. And there are two remarkable features about them — the high rate of success of treatment, and the remarkable increase (40 per cent) in the incidence of non-Hodgkins lymphoma over the past 20 years.

Hodgkins lymphoma is now curable in the overwhelming majority of cases if diagnosed early. Its progress is divided into stages, depending on the spread of the disease. More than 95 per cent of patients in whom the lymphoma is confined to the glands are cured with various combinations of chemotherapy or radiotherapy.This would have been inconceivable when I started in medicine.

The treatment of non-Hodgkins lymphoma used to be a less happy picture. This type of lymphoma is divided into more than 30 sub-types and into two major categories: the aggressive (high-grade lymphomas that grow rapidly and multiply in the body), for which the average survival time untreated is less than two years, and the follicular (low-grade lymphomas that divide slowly). These are difficult to diagnose because the initial symptoms are insidious and they grow and spread slowly.

Low-grade, non-aggressive lymphomas used to be the “better” type — life expectancy was usually about ten years. But there have been miraculous advances in the treatment of these types of lymphoma since the 1950s, when I qualified.

The aggressive, high-grade non-Hodgkins lymphomas used to embarrass doctors because we could do so little for the patient. But, thanks to an advance that happened at about the time I retired from the NHS eight years ago, they can now be treated effectively and the survival rate from this form of the disease, which used to kill within six months, is now nearly 60 per cent. More than 70 per cent of patients go into complete remission.

This is because the standard treatment with a chemotherapy mixture known as CHOP (an acronym standing for its constituent drugs) can now be given, when necessary, with MabThera.

MabThera is a relatively pleasant form of chemotherapy, and is the first treatment in 30 years to demonstrate an increased chance of cure for patients with non-Hodgkins lymphoma. It was also the first genetically modified monoclonal antibody used in the treatment of disease to be a resounding success.

Monoclonal antibodies are used to target the diseased cells: they seek and destroy rather like a missile or torpedo (unlike blunderbuss chemotherapy that attacks all cells, normal and malignant alike). The monoclonal antibodies mean that the drug can be carried predominantly to the malignant cells, leaving the other cells relatively unharmed.

The various types of lymphoma need to be better known. Only by being aware of them will the patient be given an early diagnosis — and the opportunity of early treatment that provides the best chance of cure.

Some years ago an ex-girlfriend of one of my sons, who was living abroad, came to see me because the “cyst” in her neck was failing to respond to different treatments. It was a classic lymphoma. Fortunately she survived and is still healthy, but she and her family would have been spared extensive treatment and years of anxiety if there had been greater initial awareness.

As the incidence of non-Hodgkins lymphoma, the first signs of which are usually a painless swelling in the glands of the neck, armpit or groin, is increasing at between 3 and 7 per cent a year, the sooner this awareness increases the better. Other early symptoms that do not usually excite much interest are excessive sweating, especially at night, an unexplained temperature, weight loss, appetite loss and itchy skin.

MabThera is one of the drugs that may prove — like aspirin, steroids, antibiotics and statins — to represent a major breakthrough. The latest exciting MabThera news was presented to the British Society of Rheumatology’s annual scientific meeting last month. Results when the drug is used in some resistant cases of rheumatoid arthritis have been encouraging: after the initial treatment, 38 per cent of patients achieved at least a 50 per cent improvement in their symptoms. At the same time there was no evidence of an increase in adverse events, including infection.

Lymphoma Association, Box 386, Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire HP20 2GA (admin: 01296 619400); www.lymphoma.org.uk; www.lifesite.info/