What Anthony Rizzo's Story Can Teach Us About Hodgkin Lymphoma

What he has said in his own words

Anthony Rizzo was drafted out of high school in 2007 and was playing Single-A ball when, in 2008 and aged 18, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma. In a letter on his foundation's website he writes that on September 2, 2008, his doctor told him he was in remission.

The University of Miami reported in 2017 that he had six months of chemotherapy at its Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center, under lymphoma program director Izidore Lossos. By then Rizzo was a three-time All-Star first baseman, and his family foundation, started in 2012, pledged $650,000 to Sylvester. Most of it created the Hope 44 program, named for his jersey number, which pays for counseling and family support for young people in treatment.

That is what he has made public, and this page stays inside it. What follows is the disease, not the man.

A cancer that arrives young

Hodgkin lymphoma is uncommon, and its age pattern is unusual. SEER data show 31.7% of cases are diagnosed between ages 20 and 34 and another 12.2% before 20. The median age at diagnosis is 38, decades younger than for most solid cancers.

NCI's health-professional summary lists the risk factors: being in early adulthood, roughly 20 to 39, or over 65; being male; a past Epstein-Barr virus infection in childhood or the teenage years; and a parent, sibling, or child with the disease.

There is no screening test. NCI has no evidence-based screening or prevention advice for lymphoma, which means the disease is found because someone noticed something and went in.

What people notice first

NCI lists these clinical features:

• Painless swollen lymph nodes in the neck, armpit, or groin
• Fever of 38 degrees Celsius (100.4 Fahrenheit) or higher
• Drenching, repeated night sweats
• Losing 10% or more of body weight over six months
• Itching, especially after a bath or after drinking alcohol
• Fatigue

The disease usually starts in lymph node groups above the diaphragm, the sheet of muscle under the lungs, or in the mediastinum, the space between the lungs.

Diagnosis rests on a biopsy, ideally an excisional one, meaning a whole node is removed rather than sampled with a needle. NCI also lists blood counts, an erythrocyte sedimentation rate, a chemistry panel, imaging by CT or PET-CT, and testing for HIV and for hepatitis B and C.

Why the stage carries a letter

Hodgkin lymphoma is staged I to IV. Each stage also gets an A or a B.

B means the person has at least one of three systemic symptoms: unexplained weight loss over 10% in six months, unexplained fever above 38 degrees Celsius, or drenching, repeated night sweats. A means none of them. NCI notes that fevers and weight loss carry the most weight, and that night sweats on their own do not worsen the outlook.

Early-stage disease is split again into favorable and unfavorable. Unfavorable means B symptoms, disease outside the nodes, a bulky mass of 10 cm or more, three or more nodal sites, or a sedimentation rate of 50 mm/h or higher. That split decides how much treatment is given. Our page on lymphoma stages covers the numbering in more detail.

What treatment involves

For early favorable disease, NCI lists ABVD chemotherapy — doxorubicin, bleomycin, vinblastine, and dacarbazine — for three to six cycles, or two to four cycles plus involved-field radiation to 20 or 30 Gy.

For advanced disease, the standard changed recently. NCI states that N-AVD, which swaps bleomycin for the checkpoint inhibitor nivolumab, and BV-AVD, which uses the antibody-drug conjugate brentuximab vedotin, have replaced ABVD after three decades. In a trial of 994 previously untreated people, two-year progression-free survival was 92% with N-AVD and 83% with BV-AVD.

NCI says up to 90% of newly diagnosed people with Hodgkin lymphoma can be cured with combination chemotherapy, radiation, or both. A PET-CT scan after two cycles is the single best predictor of whether the treatment is working.

The part that lasts decades

This is the reason Hodgkin lymphoma care has kept getting gentler. NCI is direct about it: for the first 15 years after treatment, the lymphoma itself is the main cause of death. From 15 to 20 years on, deaths from second cancers, heart disease, and lung scarring together overtake it.

A cohort of 4,919 people treated before age 51 between 1965 and 2000 was followed for a median of 20.2 years. Their excess death rate stayed raised even 40 years out. That is why radiation is used less than it once was, and why survivorship follow-up is a long-term job rather than a few years of scans. Our page on late effects of cancer treatment explains what is watched for.

The numbers

For 2026 the American Cancer Society projects 8,920 new US cases of Hodgkin lymphoma and 1,100 deaths, a projection SEER republishes. NCI's own SEER measurement of five-year relative survival across all stages, based on people diagnosed between 2016 and 2022, is 89.3%.

By stage: I is 92.7%, II is 95.4%, III is 87.7%, IV is 82.8%. Stage IV still carries survival above 80%, which is unusual among cancers.

These are group figures from people treated in past years. They do not describe any one person, and they predate the newest regimens.

When to get checked

See a doctor if any of this has gone on for more than two to three weeks:

• A swollen lymph node that is painless, firm, and not shrinking, especially in the neck, armpit, or groin
• Fever above 38 degrees Celsius with no infection found
• Night sweats heavy enough to soak nightclothes or sheets
• Unexplained weight loss of 10% or more of your body weight
• Itching all over with no rash

Age is not a reason to wait. Our page on Hodgkin lymphoma symptoms covers what an examination usually involves.

What this does not mean

• One person's remission does not predict another's. Type, stage, B symptoms, and response all differ.
• A swollen node is far more often infection than cancer. The point is the ones that stay.
• The 89.3% figure is a group average from past years, not a forecast for anyone.
• The late-effect data come from people treated between 1965 and 2000, with heavier radiation than is used now.

Sources

• Anthony Rizzo Family Foundation, About — https://arizzofoundation.org/about
• University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Major League Lymphoma Survivor Donates $650,000 for Teen Program at Sylvester — https://news.med.miami.edu/major-league-lymphoma-survivor-donates-650000-for-teen-program-at-sylvester/
• NCI PDQ, Hodgkin Lymphoma Treatment (Health Professional Version) — https://www.cancer.gov/types/lymphoma/hp/adult-hodgkin-treatment-pdq
• NCI, Lymphoma—Patient Version — https://www.cancer.gov/types/lymphoma
• SEER Cancer Stat Facts, Hodgkin Lymphoma — https://seer.cancer.gov/statfacts/html/hodg.html

How this article was prepared

An AI-assisted editorial system helped prepare this page. No named medical reviewer has reviewed it unless one is listed.

The National Cancer Information Foundation publishes Cancer Explained. This page is for learning. It is not medical advice and does not suggest a test or treatment.

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