![]() They last for longer than two weeks – Swollen glands caused by an infection will normally go down within two or three weeks (i.e until the infection has been naturally dealt with).Spotting the difference between harmless and harmful lymph nodes may be crucial in diagnosing leukaemia early.Īlthough swollen lymph nodes are nearly always caused by infection or reaction to an allergy, there are a few things you can look out for to help spot the difference between leukaemia and infection: ”Ĭertain characteristics such as the size of the lymph nodes, the way they feel or how long they last can help to differentiate swelling caused by infection from that caused by leukaemia or another type of blood cancer. I went back and was signed off again with a different antibiotic. However, at the end of the week, I was no better. He thought it was tonsillitis, so gave me antibiotics. “ I made an appointment to go see my GP after work. However, because of this, swollen lymph nodes can easily be mistaken as harmless when in fact they could be a warning sign of something more serious, such as blood cancer. When enlarged they can be felt or seen as raised lumps underneath the skin, most commonly in the neck, the armpits, or in the groin area.įor the vast majority of cases, swollen lymph nodes indicate nothing more than the fact that your body is fighting off an infection such as tonsillitis or even a common cold. Also referred to as “swollen glands”, lymph nodes are pea-sized lumps of tissue that contain white blood cells. It is this staging that will determine next treatment steps.Swollen lymph nodes occur as a symptom of leukaemia in approximately 20% of patients prior to their diagnosis. The patient will then be assigned a stage on a scale of I (single node involvement) to IV (diffuse involvement of multiple sites/organs). To determine the staging of a particular case, the doctor will examine the following factors: In addition, for both Hodgkin's disease and NHL, each stage carries a different prognosis and projected survival rates. This is more important for HL forms because each stage has a distinct treatment protocol developed for best outcomes. ![]() Staging of Lymphoma in the NeckĪ positive diagnosis will typically include an attempt to stage the disease (i.e., to determine how far it has progressed). Additionally, an excision is preferable to the other common option, fine needle aspiration, because it preserves the cellular structure for analysis. ![]() It is important to conduct the analysis quickly because that allows better differentiation between normal healthy cells and fast-growing cancer cells. This means that a slice of an enlarged node will be removed, intact, and will be sent to a pathologist for immediate processing. To test for lymphoma of the neck, the doctor will try to obtain an excisional biopsy of one the enlarged nodes. For example, lymphoma in the tonsils will appear as a sore throat, while a tumor in the larynx may cause hoarseness or breathing problems, and one in the sinuses will cause sinusitis. Also, specific symptoms will present depending on the area of primary involvement. These include night sweats, weight loss, and chronically low energy levels. In addition to these primary symptoms of lymphoma of the neck, there are a number of systemic symptoms that may occur in a minority of cases. NHL also tends to occur submucosally, or deeper in the tissues of the neck than things like squamous cell carcinoma. Hodgkin’s in the neck is almost exclusively limited to the lymph nodes, while NHL can be either nodal or extranodal. These swollen nodes are not usually sensitive or tender, and tend to occur in a single localized region. The most common of the symptoms of lymphoma of the neck is an enlargement of one or more lymph nodes. Signs and Symptoms of Lymphoma in the Neck Because it is a broad category of disease rather than a single, concrete disorder, head and neck lymphomas will present in a variety of ways and may have vastly different outcomes depending on location, severity, age of the patient, and other factors. The two major classifications are Hodgkin’s lymphoma (HL) and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL). They account for the most frequent head and neck malignancies. Lymphoma is a cancer of the b- and t-cell lymphocytes, part of the immune system.
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