Whenever you get sick, whats the first thing that you do? Know what you have. Either its a simple fever or a complicated illness, the very first thing that you do is to gather information to find out your current condition. The same thing with lymphoma, whether you research things on your own or go to a doctor (although this should always be the case since self diagnosis can bring you only so far) for advice, your target is to get all you need know about the disease.

Lymphoma is basically a cancer of the lymphatic system. The system is composed of various nodes or glands situated in different places of our body. These glands are connected by vessels that carry the lymph fluid or the white blood cells which help fight diseases. As you might have remembered in your high school biology class, the white blood cells help fight the bacteria and diseases that enter our body. And because these glands are connected to each other, once lymphoma hits a gland, theres a good chance that the cancer cells spread throughout the body via the lymph vessels. You should know this fact out front: no cure has been discovered yet that would eliminate the disease. Nonetheless, there are new techniques, medicines and medical procedures that have brought more positive treatments for people with lymphoma.

There are two kinds of lymphoma, namely Hodgkin’s lymphoma and Non Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL). The first one, the Hodgkins disease owes its name to Thomas Hodgkin (1798-1866). He was the first one who published a paper about the disease. This kind of lymphoma is capable of spreading from one lymph node to another. It is also observed that people diagnosed with Hodgkins lymphoma has the presence of Reed-Sternberg cells which can only be detected by the aid of a microscope.

The other kind of lymphoma is the non-Hodgkin kind. This kind is described as having larger than normal lymph nodes and is accompanied by fever and weight loss. There are about 16 sub-types which do not fall under the conditions described by Hodgkins lymphoma. These sub-types are grouped according to aggressiveness which basically means the cancer cells are fast-growing. NHL lymphomas include chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma (CLL/SLL), Burkitt lymphoma, mantle cell lymphoma, follicular lymphoma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma and immunoblastic large cell lymphoma.

Treatment is either radiation therapy or chemotherapy. The age, sex and stage of the cancers development plays a role in determining the kind of treatment patients will undergo. Early detection is crucial. Most of the patients do survive the treatment especially if they have been diagnosed during the early stages of the lymphoma.

Some of the more common symptoms of lymphomas include painless swelling in the lymph nodes of the neck, underarm, or groin. People with lymphomas also might experience fever, tiredness, weight loss, itchiness, red patches on the skin, nausea, vomiting and sometimes abdominal pain.

Those with low-grade lymphomas will encounter a very slow growth of the cancer cells and will experience very few of the symptoms. The problem with low-grade lymphomas is that even though they respond well to chemotherapy, they oftentimes return and is considered incurable unlike high-grade lymphomas. With the latter, treatment involves chemotherapy, with or without radiation therapy.

Admittedly, the information above is not all that you need to know about lymphoma. There are more facts that you need to find out for yourself especially if you have been diagnosed with having lymphoma.

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Lymphoma is simply defined as a type of cancer in the lymph system. British physician Thomas Hodgkin was the first to publish initial descriptions of the condition in 1832. Thus, the specific type of lymphoma he described (Hodgkins lymphoma) was appropriately named after him. After his initial description, many other studies looked at several other forms or types of the cancerous disease.

A cancer appears when several of our bodies cells begin behaving abnormally. The body is comprised of various kinds of cells found in different organs like the nerves of blood. At times, normal cells cease getting usual biological signals that make them stop growing. When that happens, the cells abnormally continue to multiply and grow. This is the formation of cancer cells. When the cancer cells grow, the affected organ stops working normally. Several of the cancer cells also start to break off from the original site, spreading into many other body parts and affecting many other organs.

The lymph system comprises an interconnected network with thin nodes and tubes carrying white blood cells. Such cells are responsible for fighting off infections. This way, they are vitally significant to the bodys overall well-being. When a lymphocyte (a specific kind of white blood cell) in the lymph system starts to become cancerous, it would tend to multiply and grow leading to formation of lymphoma.

Which part of the body is usually affected by lymphoma? The cancer could affect any part of the lymph system. Usually, patients initially notice abnormal enlargement of the lymph nodes, specifically in the areas of the groin, the neck, and the armpits. However, lymphoma could also manifest in several other organs of the body. This is because minimal amounts of lymph tissue pass into practically every organ in the body as white blood cells reach out to different areas to perform control of infections.

This type of cancer is currently the most usual form of blood cancer or hematological malignancy especially in the developed countries. Lymphoma comprises about 5.3% of overall forms of cancers in the United States alone. It comprises of up to 55.6% of blood cancers diagnosed. According to data released by the US National Institute of Health, Hodgkins lymphoma is accounting for about 1% of total cases of cancer across the country. Patients with HIV infection and exposure to certain medications and drugs have higher incidences of lymphoma for obvious reasons.

Many forms of lymphoma are indolent (occurring lifelong even without medication or treatment) or aggressive (causing fast deterioration of health and eventually death). However, most incidences of aggressive lymphomas are responding ideally to treatment. In other words, they are curable. This condition is not a single type of cancer because it comprises of a group of several related forms of cancers. There are about 30 various types of identified lymphoma. In a broad sense, lymphoma could be categorized as either Hodgkin or Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Of course, each type has its own features and manifestations and results to different outcomes in the long term.

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The symptoms of lymphoma are very common in many other sicknesses, which is why you really have to be vigilant about your condition and consult a doctor whenever you feel like there is something wrong. It may actually take some time before you realize that you have this kind of sickness because during the first few days or weeks, you may not even feel that something has changed. If in doubt, do not hesitate and set an appointment with your doctor before you conclude anything and start looking for treatments.

These are the usual signs and symptoms of this kind of illness. Make sure that you dont easily panic once you perceive that you have two or more of these, because as stated above, most of these are also common in other kinds of disorders.

1. Losing weight rapidly. This can happen after some months and you will be surprised to lose about 15 pounds in a couple of months without doing anything. You will easily notice such change if you already have a modest weight and you are not limiting your food intake neither you are exercising regularly. This will be harder to determine and conclude that it is already a symptom to a sickness if you are really trying to lose weight.

In many cases, the weight loss occurs after you have lost appetite. This stage transpires when the illness has already grown and start spreading in your body. When you are starting to lose more than 10% of your ideal weight, you should be very concerned as to what is causing such and make sure that before your weight drop even lower, you have already sought the doctors help.

2. The most common and usually the first symptoms that you will encounter if you have this are lumps in the groin area, armpits and neck. These enlarged lymph nodes are painless and you may never notice these if you will not inspect your body thoroughly. These enlarged nodes cause the other signs that are included in this list, but these nodes can also be present if you have other kinds of illnesses.

3. When the nodes start to swell, you will experience fever that may last for some time. For example, for people who got what is called Hodgkin type of this illness, they will suffer from a fever that is referred to as Pel-Ebstein.

4. The cells that are infected with the disease secrete special chemicals that cause itchiness that will affect your whole body.

5. Some people experience excessive sweating at night. They usually get up with their bodies drenched in sweat without any specific reasons. This happens even when they are in a very comfortable situation and they really cant find any reason to sweat a lot.

There are other unusual symptoms that can be felt by people who are suffering from lymphoma, depending on where the sickness occurred. This can actually take place in any organ of the body and as the cancer cells grow bigger, the person who has this will feel weaker because the infected areas use more of the nutrients inside the body.

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A type of cancer known as lymphoma could occur innocuously, usually in a harmless way that it often takes a long time before a person takes notice of evident symptoms. You should learn about the most common symptoms of the disease. Take note that most of such signs could commonly occur that they could appear even if you are not suffering from lymphoma. There is indeed no need to panic when these symptoms are observed. The best thing to do is to immediately consult the doctor so that all your doubts and fears could be properly addressed.

Painless lumps in the groin, armpits, or neck

This is the most usual symptom. In many cases this is the only manifestation of lymphoma. The lumps are actually enlarged lymph nodes. Such lumps could be noticed or felt while you are changing or bathing. Your partner could also call your attention because of such lumps. This top symptom must come with the following other symptoms to feed your suspicion that you may be suffering from this type of cancer.

Abrupt weight loss

Weight loss that occurs rapidly and for no apparent reason could be suspicious. If you are not into any weight loss program and you significantly shed off pounds (about 10 lbs to 15 lbs in just several months), you should inspect your body and find out if there are lumps in the neck, groin, or armpits. If there are, immediately subject yourself to medical tests.

Continuous fever

Immediately seek medical attention if a fever occurs continuously and intermittently for a certain period of time. If there is no occurrence of urinary or chest infection and there are lumps in specific areas in the body, consult a doctor at once. Fever related to swellings of the nodes is commonly infectious. Many forms of lymphoma are usually mistaken as mere infections during the early stage of cancer. Pel-Ebstein fever (very high fever going on and off for seven to 10 days) is a top manifestation of Hodgkin lymphoma.

Excessive sweating especially at night

This situation is quite bothersome. It is uncomfortable. Often, you may wake up in the middle of the night while being drenched in too much sweat. When there is no apparent reason for this sweating episode and other symptoms of the cancer are evident, you should be alarmed.

Loss of appetite and itchiness all over the body

You would experience an unexplained and considerable loss of appetite if the lymphoma has spread across other parts of the body. This leads to weight loss, which is discussed earlier. If you detect a 10% weight loss or more, be immediately concerned as the symptom could already be a poor prognostic factor of the cancer. At the same time, there could be abnormal itchiness all over the body as lymphoma cells secrete special chemicals due to the condition.

Overall feeling of weakness

Lastly, lymphoma comes with an overall feeling of weakness. As cancer cells continue growing, they inevitably make use of most of the nutrients in the body. This occurrence makes you logically feel weaker.

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