Enlarged or harder lymph nodes are the most common Hodgkin’s disease symptoms.
The Hodgkin’s disease differs in several characteristics from other lymphomas.
It is a less common type of cancer which affects the lymphatic system, a part of the immune system.
It was distinguished to be different from the other lymphomas by the British physician Thomas Hodgkin.
The origin of Hodgkin’s disease is in the lymph nodes which are responsible to manufacture and circulate the lymph which carries the white blood cells which are responsible to fight against infection. As the disease advances the immune system is weakened.
This disease affects the young or middle age adults. The lymphatic cancer is of two types of which the foremost is the Hodgkin’s disease which is less common than the other type the non-Hodgkin’s disease. Both the types differ in the way they affect the lymph nodes and the outcomes of the disease.
The Hodgkin’s disease symptoms are more common among the people of UK. Each year many new cases come up in spite of advanced diagnosis tests available.
Due to the advance research the Hodgkin’s disease treatment and diagnosis procedures have evolved to be far better than the previous ones.
Because of these advanced technologies the survival rates of Hodgkin’s disease has shown a good improvement over past years. This disease stands highly curable and treatment with good prognosis.
The cause of the disease is unknown but there is some evidence that it may be caused by the same virus that causes glandular fever. As the disease involves the lymphatic system, it is called the lymphatic cancer or lymphoma. The lymph is a pale fluid through which white blood cells travel.
Most Prevalent Hodgkin’s Disease Symptoms
The early Hodgkin’s disease symptoms are the presence of enlarged or harder lymph nodes. This is the most common Hodgkin’s disease symptoms experienced by most of the patients. If the disease has affected only a few lymph nodes than it might not be easy to detect the disease as nothing abnormal may be noticed.
However the diagnosis can be made by clinical observation under the microscope of a portion of the affected lymph nodes to detect the cause of enlargement. It should be kept in mind that the mere enlargement of the lymph nodes may not be a sure sign of the disease as this may be caused by any other infections as well.
The other Hodgkin’s disease symptoms are also similar to those of the flu, such as fever, fatigue and night sweats. However the development of tumors may predict a serious problem unlike these less serious problems. As the disease progresses the tumors develop eventually. The Hodgkin’s disease symptoms are as follows:
- Swelling of lymph nodes in the regions of neck, armpits or groin without any pain may be one of the Hodgkin’s disease symptoms which is more prominent
- Persistent fatigue and weakness
- Fever and chills
- Night sweats
- Unexplained and unintentional weight loss
- Poor appetite or loss of appetite