I was diagnosed with Follicular Lymphoma B cell in December. I am scheduled to start Chemo treatments in a week. I also had an HIV test as my CD4 count was low and the doctor was concerned. It turns out I'm HIV positive with CD4 of 19 and a viral load of 750,000. Is there hope? What is the drug regimen that you'd recommend. What are the complications that I should be concerned with when getting Chemo? The Chemo method is Chop-Rituxan, 1x every three weeks for 4 treatments followed by 4 weeks of radiation.

Hello, and thanks for posting.

There is certainly hope in your situation, even with a dual diagnosis of AIDS and lymphoma.

You are scheduled to receive a standard treatment for lymphoma and should also commence therapy for HIV infection. Although there are no hard and fast rules for initial regimens, a reasonable first choice would be to consider Atripla once at bedtime. Some clinicians would recommend a boosted protease inhibitor regimen in light of the low CD4+ lymphocyte count and high viral load. I would not argue with this approach, but would lean towards using a simple regimen.

The major complications of chemotherapy are bone marrow suppression, gastrointestinal side effects, and infection.

Let us know how things turn out and best of luck to you!