Every year only in Italy lymphomas are diagnosed in more than 16,000 people and compared to a few years ago, the healing peaks can be up to 80% for some forms.
They are a large family of blood cancers, grouped essentially into two forms:
- Hodgkin’s lymphomas
- non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas.
They particularly affect the lymph nodes, that is, the lymph glands. They are small organs concentrated in particular on the neck, armpits, groin and abdomen and play an important role. In fact, inside they contain lymphocytes, that is, the cells of the immune system that most of all play a role in defense against the attack of viruses and bacteria.
Hodgkin’s lymphoma is more frequent in the age group between 15 and 35 years, while non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma predominates the over 60 age group. For both forms, the most affected sex is male.
Beware of symptoms
In the early stages the symptoms can be so mild that they go unnoticed. The main ones are:
- enlargement of the lymph nodes in the neck, armpits, or groin without pain, and sometimes fever and sweating at night
- Unjustified exhaustion
- weight loss
- persistent cough or difficulty breathing.
“Swelling of the lymph nodes is quite common and can also be caused by an infection,” explains Carmelo Carlo-Stella, hematologist at the Cancer Center of the Humanitas Institute in Milan and researcher at AIRC, the Italian association that deals with cancer research.
“This is why it is essential to first prescribe blood and urine tests, precisely to exclude that there is an infectious process underway. If it is excluded that the swelling of the lymph nodes is due to an infection, it is necessary to continue with the diagnostic investigations and perform the biopsy of the enlarged lymph node. In some forms of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, diagnosis is completed with bone marrow biopsy. It consists of taking a fragment of bone from the pelvis to detect the presence of lymphoma cells. It is an invasive examination and for this reason it is performed under local anesthesia.At the end of the diagnostic process, two important radiological investigations are prescribed: computed tomography to identify any other lymph nodes involved and positron emission tomography (PET) to map the disease.
Treatments save lives
Chemotherapeutics, radiotherapy, immunotherapy. And when necessary, stem cell transplantation. These are the strategies available to the specialist.
“Today the treatment is increasingly “tailor-made”, to be decided based on the type of lymphoma, the age of the patient and his general health conditions – underlines Carlo-Stella. Not only that, when the progression of the tumor is very slow, as can happen in particular for the form called “non-Hodgkin”, it is possible to keep the disease under strict control without performing any therapy.
Joycelyn Elders is the author and creator of EmpowerEssence, a health and wellness blog. Elders is a respected public health advocate and pediatrician dedicated to promoting general health and well-being.
The blog covers a wide range of topics related to health and wellness, with articles organized into several categories.