b cell lymphoma symptoms |Lymph Lymphoid organs

Lymph
Lymphoid organs

CANCER of the lymphatic system: answers to your QUESTIONS
Starting POINT
Lymphoma is a cancerous disease that develops within the lymph and lymph nodes. Lymphoma is then a tumor that develops from the lymphocytes that are these cells of the lymphatic tissue.
Among the lymphomas, one of them has a particular evolution, the cutaneous lymphoma that develops in the lymphoid cells of the skin. These very specific lymphomas are represented by Mycosis Fungoides and Cézary syndrome.

What's going on
There are 2 different types of lymphoma:

The Lymphosarcoma or cancer proper of lymphoid tissue and lymph nodes.
And Hodgkin's disease characterized by the development of specific cells (Sternberg cells).
Because of the difference in both the cellular and the treatment and prognosis of both cancers, we prefer to talk about:

of Hodgkin's disease which is characterized by the existence of an abnormal cell, the Steinberg cell.
and non-Hodgkin's malignant lymphoma (which is therefore a lymphosarcoma) that corresponds to all cancerous diseases of lymph and lymph nodes that are not Hodgkin's disease.
The nuance is a bit complex, but it is important.

HODGKIN's disease
It mainly affects people under the age of 30 or over 60 years. Its cause is poorly known, but it is believed that the Epstein-Barr virus responsible for infectious mononucleosis would play a role in the onset of this disease.
The Sternberg cell which is a giant cell with multiple nuclei invades the lymph and lymph nodes. They start to inflate, region by region. Later the liver, bone marrow and lungs can be affected.
The disease is accompanied by other signs such as fever, severe fatigue, itching and slimming.
A checkup is carried out to know the extent of the disease's spread.
Chemotherapy treatments (MOOP and ABVD Protocol) and in some cases radiotherapy allow healing in the vast majority of cases.

Lymphosarcoma NON Hodgkin

Unlike Hodgkin's disease, which is highly stereotyped, non-Hodgkin lymphomas are much more heterogeneous both in their extension, in their prognosis and in the way they are treated. They can develop from B lymphocytes or T lymphocytes.

Because of their variability, it is very difficult to classify them. The doctor holds a number of criteria for this: the signs of the disease, the characteristics of the malignant cells, certain chemical elements.

The classification in perpetual evolution allows to define the treatment which is adapted to the malignancy of the affection.

The evolution can be "indolent", therefore little fast and not aggressive: most of the time it is lymphosarcoma to "small cells cleaved". This means that in the lymph nodes we find small cells and have some kind of deep notches. But the evolution can be as aggressive: in this case it was noticed that the malignant cells were mostly large.

The treatments proposed depend on many criteria (aggression, organization of cells, degree of extension...). It is the medical team that chooses the most appropriate treatment according to these various criteria.

Alternatives are chemotherapy (e.g. purine analogues), anti-CD20 monoclonal antibodies (thus directed against certain lymphocytes), immunotherapy, interferon, interleukins.

Bone marrow allografts are also proposed to allow the grafted marrow to produce normal cells at the expense of abnormal cells.

Particular case of cutaneous lymphoma

These are rare diseases that reach humans between 40 and 60 years. They touch the skin and then extend to certain lymph nodes and other organs. Their evolution is very slow over several years.