Cancer is a word that most of us dread to hear from our doctors. We know that its something that should not be taken lightly, plus we cant even count how many times we have seen in the movies and television about the difficulties of the disease and more often than not the sad ending that follows. So hearing you have cancer of the lymph cells, which what lymphoma really is, is more than enough to give you and your family a scare. Treating lymphoma is never easy both physically and mentally for the patient. Having the full support of the family is a good thing to have in situations like these.

Lymphoma develops when the lymph cells begin to multiply quickly beyond what is normal. This abnormal growth soon forms tumors. These lymph cells are found in blood and lymph nodes thus with the grown of the cancer cells it is only natural that the lymph nodes enlarge and manifests as painless lumps in the neck, armpits or groin.

There are two main types of lymphoma. The most common one is the Hodgkin’s lymphoma. This type is distinguished from the rest by the presence of the Reed-Sternberg cell. The spread of the cancer cells in Hodgkin’s lymphoma is more predictable and often quite limited unlike the non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas where cancer cells develop first in other organs before spreading into the lymph nodes. The non-Hodgkins types of lymphomas are classified according low-grade, intermediate-grade or high-grade lymphomas which basically is based on how quickly the cancer cells spread.

Because of the number of types of lymphomas, the treatments vary. Often the treatments are combinations of various therapies and procedures. It is normal to have a number of treatments for a single lymphoma case. Once the type of lymphoma has been diagnosed and identified, the next step is to determine what stage it is in now. The kinds and extent of treatment of the cancer is dependent on the age of the patient and the degree or stage of the lymphoma. The treatment methods are either through chemotherapy, radiation therapy, antibody therapy (or biological therapy) and bone-marrow or stem cell transplantation. Again, combining one or two of these treatment methods is possible to address the present condition of a patient.

Chemotherapy uses various drugs to kill the tumor or cancer cells. The drugs can be taken orally or through injection. The advantage of using chemotherapy is that the drugs do not cause that much damage to the nearby normal and healthy cells. Radiotherapy, on the other hand, uses X-rays to kill the tumor cells. The rays damage the DNA of the cancer cells and because the DNA is damaged the cancer cells are unable to multiply which halts that growth of the cancer. Nearby healthy cells are damaged from the radiation bombardment so the goal in radiotherapy is minimize the damage to nearby, healthy cells. That is why those who undergo radiotherapy is scheduled to receive small doses of radiation at a time to lessen the damage to the cells.

Another treatment is the antibody therapy which uses antibodies which target unique molecules of a cancer cell. This attack from the antibody will eventually kill the cancer cells. And finally, the last way of treating lymphoma is by bone marrow or stem cell transplantations. These are medical procedures where the stem cells that were destroyed by high doses of chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy are replaced through surgery.

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Instead of living in fear that you might have lymphoma, you should be very aware from the start of how the usual process goes. It will be better if you are going to find out more about it through research. You can get this done by going through various online resources as well as on printed books and professional studies that were conducted about the subject.

To help you understand the basic things about this illness, here is an overview of the various steps that a person goes through when they are suffering from this kind of cancer. The very first noticeable signs are the enlarged lymph nodes that can be found in the areas of armpits, neck and groin. In most cases, those who have these kinds of nodes also suffer from fever, loss of appetite and drastic weight loss.

When you seek the doctor’s help, they will require you to undergo excisional biopsy. To get this done, they will take small tissue sample from the organs or nodes that seem to be affected with the disease. This sample will be studied by a pathologist under the microscope. Other doctors may ask you to have the fine needle aspiration cytology or FNAC and will let you go through biopsy once they have determined that you have the illness. In most cases, patients go through the lymph node biopsy, but when the cancer affects other areas such as the stomach, brain or skin, the specific biopsy that are targeted to these organs will be done.

Once it was established that you are ill with this disease, the doctor will not be able to give you proper treatment until they know exactly what kind of the disorder you are dealing with. This can be ruled after the pathologist is done inspecting your biopsy sample under the microscope and they have seen the physical appearance of the cancer cells. The two main types of this sickness are the Hodgkin and non-Hodgkin or NHL. The types can also be understood through the use of markers that can point out special molecules on the affected cells.

After the diagnosis, the patient needs to undergo series of tests. Through the tests, it will be examined how far the disease has been spread through the body and what organs have already been infected. Depending on the doctor and how they perceive things, the individual may have to go through a bone marrow test, blood test and if the case is worse, they may need to seek chemotherapy treatment. After all the tests, the patient will discuss things with an oncologist about their other treatment options.

The best thing that you can do to stay healthy all the time is to eat right and lead an ideal lifestyle. This may not be that easy, especially if you are the type of person who loves going out while drinking alcohol and doing other vices. There are also those that no matter how healthy their lifestyle is, there are other factors that affect their overall well-being.

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