You could mistake lymphoma for the flu, so knowing the signs and symptoms of this condition are key to diagnosing it. Find out what they are in this video featuring cancer specialist Deborah Axelrod, M.D.
Most people who have lymphoma present with a hard nodule in one of the lymph bearing areas. So, it could be in the neck, the cervical chain here, on each side of the neck, could be above the collar bone called the supraclavicular nodes, in the chest where you probably wouldn't pick that up because you can't feel it, under the armpit.
These are lymph nodes called the auxiliary lymph nodes or in the groin in the crease here and that there's a whole site where you can find hard lymph nodes that could represent lymphoma. Usually you don't have symptoms with lymphoma, but if you do they're kind of mimic flu like symptoms and it would include unexplained weight loss, so, about 10% of, you would lose of your usual weight.
If you're a 140 pound woman, losing about 14 pounds would be cause for alarm. If you have night sweats, profuse sweating through your bed clothes, into your sheets, would be something that you'd want to see a doctor about and also fevers to 101.5, that after a week or two, the antibiotic still persist.
Now, there are about 335,000 people worldwide that would be diagnosed with lymphoma, there's about 35 types of lymphoma but lymphomas are most commonly, Hodgkin's lymphoma which has a very good prognosis and non Hodgkin's lymphoma. There are about a million people worldwide that are living with your diagnosis and there is a substantial increase in the incidence of lymphoma among men, women and children and the cause of this is unknown.
We have targeted therapies that have been developed that, have less side effects than conventional chemotherapy and I think that we have made great strides in the treatment of lymphomas.
Deborah Axelrod, MD is a fellow of the American College of Surgeons. She completed a surgical oncology research fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, is widely published in her field and has been in practice since 1988.
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