Persians - Swollen Glands and Lymphoma

Hello all -

I have a Persian cat who is now nine years old. He has always been in
great health - no problems, rarely sick (had a cold once in his life),
etc. Recently I noticed a lump behind his jaw, and after a precursory
search found other lumps which are symmetrical (both sides of his
neck/jaw, his armpits, hind legs, etc. - swollen lymph nodes) We took
him to see the vet that we have been using for a couple years now, and
this guy didn't seem to concerned about them and told us to "just wait".
We waited a few days and there was no change so we went to schedule an
appointment to bring him back, only to find that the guy retired (nice
of him to let us know that). So, we decided to get a second opinion and
took him to see another vet at like a veterinary hospital. We were
worried about this all week and when the new vet checked him out (just
by feeling the areas we mentioned), she informed us that she was fairly
sure it was lymphoma. As you can imagine we are devastated by this news
- he is no ordinary cat and we love him very dearly. We are scheduled
to have a biopsy done in a few days and fear the worst. My wife and I
are beside ourselves with fear and grief over this, and I just want to
be sure that this is the right thing to do. He just seems fine and is as
playful and normal as ever - even better than normal it seems sometimes.

My questions are these -

Is it possible for him to have had lymphoma for all this time with no
symptoms other than the swollen glands we found? He seems healthier
than he has ever been - his weight is good ( even better than before)
his appetite is normal, etc. - everything seems fine.

Is there a possibility that it is NOT Lymphoma and what are the odds on
his symptoms being related to another problem entirely (preferably
something that is not life threatening).

If it IS lymphoma - what are the odds of him surviving this and what can
we expect?

Any info or opinions on this will be welcome as we are really desperate
at this point and will do anything to get this taken care of. Money is
not an object when it comes to him.

Thanks

Simon


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"...There is no dark side of the moon, really...as a matter of fact,
it's all dark..."

- Pink Floyd, The Dark Side of the Moon.