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Dr. Lane Lester

I hope you find this article about lymphoma both interesting and helpful.

Being diagnosed with high grade or fast growing lymphoma would sound very frightening to the patient and his or her family. Just hearing the term fast growing would arouse fear that the patient would not have a long time to live before the cancer cells would overtake his system. However, contrary to common belief that fast growing lymphomas are more dangerous that slow growing lymphomas, the truth is that fast growing lymphomas have more chances of being totally cured than that of a slow growing lymphoma.

Fast growing lymphomas are known to manifest symptoms at an early stage. Patients who have fast growing lymphomas often experience swelling in the lymph nodes around the neck area, the armpit and the groin during stage 1 and 2 f the disease. Since the patient already feels discomfort at this stage of the disease, he or she would see a doctor earlier than those patients who have slow growing lymphoma. Note that people with slow growing lymphoma do not have any symptoms of the disease at an early stage. There are no outward signs that a person does have slow growing lymphoma that is why most patient who are diagnosed are already in the advanced stage of the disease. On the other hand, patients with fast growing or aggressive lymphoma already feel discomfort during the early stages thus they are diagnosed and treated early.

Depending on the age of the patient, the areas affected and the stage of the lymphoma, the prognosis of the patient could be either classified as favorable or unfavorable. In patients with unfavorable prognosis, the cancer management team would recommend more aggressive treatment than those patients with favorable prognosis. Note that in fast growing lymphoma cases, the early detection of the cancer is very important and is a big factor in the full recovery of the patient. Classification of favorable and unfavorable prognosis could be made after the patient had undergone a series of tests and procedures. These test and procedures will include documentation of their histology.

This means that the patient's history, including that of his or her family line would be traced and recorded to ascertain as to whether or not members of the family have been afflicted with lymphoma or other types of cancers. Documenting the family history would not only serve the patient's interest but also of the entire family. Studies show that family history plays a vital role in detecting cancers. Where a family member has had cancer in the past, the other members have higher risk of contracting the disease. A family member who is of the same sex as that of the patient would have 10 times more risk of contracting the disease that other members of the family. For identical twins, the risk that the other twin would contract lymphoma could be as high as 100%. According to scientists the reason why an identical twin has almost 100% chances of contracting lymphoma like the other twin is that their genetic composition is identical, therefore, the genetic anomaly, which caused the lymphoma in the other, is also present on the other.

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