![]() |
| Site Navigation | Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma: Diagnosis |
|
|
For Professionals
|
| Often the one who
makes the first diagnosis of Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is the person affected although a good
percentage of diagnoses are made when receiving normal examinations such as annual
physicals or pregnancy check-ups. Symptoms There are some symptoms for Non-Hodgkin's but they are not specific. Often a lymph node swells, especially in the upper body area. Other times one feels that they have a lack of energy. More serious symptoms can include weight loss, fever, night sweats, or unexplained itching. What Will Happen |
|||
|
|
|||
|
NHL is medically diagnosed by taking a tissue sample (in a surgical procedure called a biopsy). A needle biopsy is sometimes used but a surgical biopsy, removal of a whole node, is preferred in getting enough tissue for a definite diagnosis. The pathologist (a person trained in the biology of cells) searches for cancerous cells. Below are tissue samples of two types of NHL: |
|||
Marginal Zone NHL and Mantle Cell Lymphoma |
|||
| Sample
images of various lymphomas can be seen by yourself in the American
Society of Hematology Image Bank: B-cell,
T
& NK Cell cancers.
The biopsy tissue can also be tested using modern techniques to determine the exact type of cells involved. There are other tests your medical team may do including the following:
Certain medical centers may perform additional tests, including
With modern imaging techniques, these two procedures should not be necessary. Once a biopsy sample is taken, it is tissue typed into one of several types of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. A page is devoted to Lymphoma Classification and Typing. The medical team will also stage the spread of the lymphoma. There are four stages which depend on how far the cancer has spread through the body: Stages of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma Once non-Hodgkin's lymphoma is found, more tests will be done to find out if the cancer
has spread from where it started to other parts of the body. This testing is called
staging. Your doctor needs to know the stage of your disease to plan treatment. Your
doctor may determine the stage of your disease by examining you and doing the testing
mentioned above. This type of staging is called clinical staging. In some cases, your
doctor may need to do an operation called a laparotomy to determine the stage of your
cancer. During this operation, your doctor makes a small surgical incision into your
abdomen and carefully looks at the organs to see if they contain cancer. The doctor will
remove (biopsy) small pieces of tissue during the operation and look at them under a
microscope to see whether they contain cancer. This type of staging is called pathologic
staging. Pathologic staging is usually done when it is needed to help your doctor plan
treatment.
In contiguous stage II lymphoma, the positive lymph node areas are next to one another; in non-contiguous stage II, the positive lymph nodes are not next to each other but are still on the same side of the diaphragm.
Once the doctor knows the type and stage of the disease he can plan treatment, often in consultation with other oncologists (cancer specialist doctors). Further Reading / In-Depth
Multimedia Resources (new)
Diagnosis Resources
Lymphoma Classification - what kind of
lymphoma is it? Below are links to more information on Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. Take the information you find to discuss with your medical team. A glossary is available if terms are unfamiliar. For more information on Adult Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, please see the following pages: :
Other pages you may want to visit: This page is a work in progress - if you have more complete information, references, or other information please contact the author. The author is not in the medical field and does not warrant the correctness of the material on this page or the sites linked - please take online information and consult with your own medical team to make informed decisions. Copyright © 1996-2005 Lymphoma Information
Network - All Rights Reserved |
|||