What is lymphoma? Lymphoma (lymphoma), a type of blood cancer, is a serious disease that requires early treatment. With early treatment, lymphoma is a disease that can be overcome with the control of various treatment methods and successful process management.
What is lymphoma, Lymphoma, or lymph cancer, is a serious disease that occurs as a result of the cancerization of white blood cells called lymphocytes, in other words, the body's defense cells, and constitutes a large part of blood-borne cancers, which can cause death if not intervened in time. It is seen in the body especially with advancing age. It is a disease that can be seen equally in men and women. Lymphoma, which can manifest itself with different symptoms in the human body, can occur with symptoms such as flu, dry cough, swollen tonsils that do not go away for a while.
Lymph glands, lymph fluid and lymph vessels, which make up the lymphatic system, systematically form the body's defense mechanism as a whole. When cancer is seen in the lymph system, which provides defense against many diseases and infections, the disease also involves the spleen, bone marrow, thymus gland and tonsils.
Lymphocytes are responsible for the separation of microorganisms entering the body from outside by thousands of lymph glands and preventing the spread of these microorganisms throughout the body. When these lymphocytes deteriorate and increase for a number of reasons and form masses in the lymphatic system organs, lymphoma, or lymph cancer, occurs in the body.
Lymph cancer is examined under two main types: Hodgkin Lymphoma and Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.
What Causes Lymphoma?
It is not known exactly what causes lymphoma, lymphoma or lymph cancer. Lymphoma occurs when a white blood cell, called a lymphocyte, which is responsible for fighting diseases and protecting the body, develops a mutation in its genetic code. This mutation tells the cell to multiply rapidly and leads to many diseased lymphocytes that continue to multiply.
Mutations also allow these cells to continue to live while other cells die. This leads to too many diseased and ineffective lymphocytes in your lymph nodes, causing them to swell.
Types of lymphoma
What is lymphoma, lymphoma is divided into Hodgkin's Lymphoma and Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Although these two types are similar, there are differences between them. As a result of the tests, it is decided which type of the disease in question. It is important to diagnose the type of lymphoma before starting treatment.
In some patients, symptoms such as recurrent fever, weight loss and night sweats indicate Hodgkin's lymphoma. This type is characterized by enlarged lymph nodes. Computerized tomography and bone marrow biopsy are used to determine the stage of the disease.
Non-Hodgkin's lymphomas are divided into 3 groups: indolent (slowly progressing) lymphomas, aggressive (rapidly progressing) and very aggressive (very rapidly progressing) lymphomas. The course and treatment of these diseases can vary greatly.
Symptoms of Lymphoma
- Itching
- enlarged and proliferating lymph nodes
- Fever of unknown origin
- Sudden weight loss
- Night sweats
- Persistent fatigue
- Dry cough and breathing problems
- Abdominal bloating, fullness or pain
Lymphoma Treatment
Lymphoma treatment starts by first diagnosing the patient with lymphoma. A detailed physical examination is performed after a detailed history of the disease and family history is taken. For this, a biopsy must first be taken. Lymphoma can be diagnosed by looking at lymphocytes under a microscope. However, this morphologic evaluation is not sufficient to subtype the disease. Different tests are required to make the correct diagnosis.
Chemotherapy is one of the most commonly used and important treatment methods for blood cancers, especially lymphoma. Different combinations of drugs are used for each disease. The effect of the drugs increases with higher doses. Since these drugs also damage healthy cells in the human body, side effects such as hair loss after treatment, disorders in the gastrointestinal system, sores in the mouth, loss of appetite, weight loss, weakness, intervening serious infections, which are also seen in many classical chemotherapies, occur. Since these complications can be foreseen in advance, necessary precautions are taken and the patient is ensured to survive the treatment process under the best conditions and without risk. In addition to chemotherapy, radiotherapy is sometimes applied to the patient for supportive purposes to relieve the treated area, although not for treatment purposes.