Hodgkin’s disease usually begins as a painless, progressive enlargement of the lymph glands.
Those glands in the neck are most commonly affected, but the condition may occur elsewhere, particularly in glands along the great blood vessels which are inside the chest or abdomen.
Sometimes the disease appears to be localised and very slowly progressive. In others it appears to be active and widespread right from the start. And in those cases it may be associated with weight loss, fever and often an itch.
Once regarded as invariably fatal, this disorder now may be not only controlled but cured. At present, a cure rate of just over 90% is possible.
It is usual to remove a lymph gland and to look at it under a microscope. It may be necessary to consider an operation on the abdomen to remove the spleen or enlarged glands inside.
The lymphatic system carries fluid from the tissues back through the body, and is interrupted every so often by these lymph glands. Finally the main lymph channel empties into the great vein in the chest. From here the blood is carried back to the heart.
The treatment of Hodgkin’s disease is by X-ray or chemo-therapy, or both.
In chemo-therapy drugs which are designed to kill the cancer cells are administered by mouth or injection. Often two or three of these drugs are used in conjunction, and cortisone is given at the same time to reduce the inflammation.
The success of treatment depends on how early the diagnosis is made and on how wide-spread is the involvement of the glands.
Hodgkin’s disease is uncommon.
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