lymphoma cancer symptoms | Lymphoma: Cancer of the lymphatic system

Lymphoma: Cancer of the lymphatic system
   

Lymphoma: An unknown cancer
See Also
Cancer of the lymphatic system
Lymphomas: From diagnosis to daily life
Lymphoma Support
The lymphoma affects each year 11 000 French and is responsible for more than 5 000 deaths. This cancer of the lymphatic system is present in two different forms: non-Hodgkin lymphomas and Hodgkin's disease. Discover the essentials on these pathologies largely unknown to the general public.

From symptoms to diagnosis to different forms of lymphoma, discover the essentials of this cancer.

Zoom on the lymphatic system
Cancer lymphoma The lymphatic system is part of our body's defenses. It mobilizes and responds to diseases and infections. It is a network of thin channels, the lymphatic vessels, through which the antibodies circulate, the cells that produce them and those that destroy viruses and bacteria.

These lymphatic vessels carry lymph, a pale fluid in which certain nutrients circulate, especially lipids, but also the cells used to defend the organism, in particular the B and T lymphocytes, also called globules White. Located at the elbows, groin, abdomen and chest, neck and armpits, the lymph nodes have the task of filtering the lymph and eliminating all the bacteria, viruses and other extraneous substances that can be found there. Other organs such as spleen, bone marrow, tonsils and thymus also participate in this filtering.

Symptoms to diagnosis
Lymphoma refers to the generic term for any cancer that develops in the lymphatic system. This cancer is characterized by the anarchic multiplication of lymphocytes that accumulate to form tumors in various elements of the lymphatic system: lymph nodes, but also very different organs since lymphocytes circulate throughout the body and All organs. The origin of these cancers remains partly mysterious. Some risk factors have been identified: immune system disease, severe infection, use of immunosuppressants, chemotherapy or radiation therapy, pesticide exposure, viral infection... But the disease may appear when none of these risk factors are present.

The most common symptoms are a painless lump in the neck, armpits or groin, as well as general symptoms: fever, night sweats, weight loss, fatigue, cough and difficulty breathing... Only a microscopic examination of a lymph node (from a biopsy) can establish the diagnosis and determine the type of lymphoma.

Two major types of lymphoma
There are two main types of lymphoma:

Hodgkin lymphomas (also called Hodgkin's disease) are characterized by the presence of some abnormal cancer cells, Reed Stenberg cells (which are not present in other forms of lymphoma). The world has 62 000 cases of Hodgkin lymphomas and 25 000 deaths each year;
Non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL). The latter account for nearly 90% of the cases. There are 286 000 cases of non-Hodgkin lymphomas and 161 000 deaths in the world each year. But this category actually includes more than 30 different forms of lymphoma, usually divided into two groups according to the rate of evolution of the tumor:
Indolent lymphomas, with a rather slow evolution, whose most frequent forms are follicular lymphomas (25% of cases)
Fast-changing, aggressive lymphomas, the most frequent forms of which are large-cell B diffuse lymphomas (35% of cases).
In the Face of these cancers, there are different treatments chosen according to the stage of advancement, the type of tumor... For more information, see our article on lymphoma treatments.