Lyme and Co-infections vs Follicular Lymphoma

sorry top hear you are dealing with this

i don't have any really specific knowledge to offer on this

but i think the Follicular Lymphoma diagnosis will be relatively reliable - as i think its based on well defined histological features when they put a sample under the microscope ( i assume that's what they did in your case to arrive at that diagnosis? )

if your question is more - "could this be caused by or exist alongside lyme or co-infections?" - then the answer is absolutely - one diagnosis would not exclude the other - and in fact inflammation in lymph nodes or other tissues from chronic infection can trigger various forms of malignancy.

bartonella for instance has been linked to breast cancer - and various liver inflaming conditions like Hep C linked to liver cancer to name a couple of examples - essentially chronic inflammation increases the mutation rate and interferes with the DNA repair mechanisms in the body leading to more mutations

i hope its of some help

i'm afraid i am not a doctor - just someone who has had to read and learn a lot about lyme disease and health in general in order to steer my own boat through this complex illness

unfortunately this means i have little or no knowledge of follicular lymphomas.

however - everything we do to our bodies has some effect on lyme disease - both good and bad - so its certainly something your treating physician should be made aware of and should inform their treatment approach.
unfortunately modern medicine is highly specialised and compartmentalised - so its rare to find say a cancer doctor who has any real understanding of chronic infectious diseases - so this may well prove to be a challenge.

on the plus side the world has changed a great deal in the last 20 of so years - and its now much easier to be your own advocate - be informed about your condition - and ask the appropriate questions to be an active participant in the treatment decisions discussion.

i would encourage this approach.

the other possible option is to find a Lyme Literate Medical Doctor to act as the infectious disease consultant - who can discuss your treatment with the the oncologist - on a peer to peer basis - which the oncologist may find more acceptable (medical professionals often do not believe or attach appropriate weight to views or evidence about lyme disease presented to them by lay people - believing they know better - or that patients are misinformed etc)

again - i hope its of some help