Hodgkin's lymphoma

I once had a 22 year old male patient came in to the urgent care that complained of swollen lymph glands in his neck and right shoulder area for approximately one week. His main concern was that the lymph glands got very large in a short period of time. The doctor I was working with ordered a mono test, CBC (complete blood count), a CMP (complete metabolic panel), an influenza test, and x-rays of the chest and soft tissue neck. All of the in house labs came back normal, but his white blood cell count was extremely high, and his x-rays showed swelling of the lymph glands all the way down to almost the hilar area. After the doctor reviewed his test, he sent the patient to have a STAT CT scan of the chest. The patient was allergic to contrast, so a non-contrast exam was done. The impression of the scan was, "Anterior mediastinal and right peritracheal lympadenopathy as well as supraclavicular adenopathy and the radiologist suggested the patient see an oncologist to do further testing to rule out cancer. After visiting the oncologist, a biopsy was performed and was confirmed as Hodgkin's Lymphoma. The patient went through numerous radiation therapy and chemotherapy treatments and is now cancer free!

Lymphoma's are cancers involving the lymph system. There are two major types of lymphomas, one being non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and the other being Hodgkin's lymphoma. Non-Hodgkin's lymphomas are more aggressive so the treatment for those patients are stronger. Patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma have a high survival rate especially when caught early. CT, MRI, and PET scans are usually the imaging choices and the first step in determining the problem. After the initial scans, a biopsy is taken out of the area of interest and a "stage" is given to the type of cancer, if any. There are 4 stages of cancer. Stage 1 is when the cancer is found early and stage 4 is later and more complex. Some risk factors include: being male, an infection with the Epstein Barr Virus (mono), and a weakened immune system. Treatments for Hodgkin's lymphoma is chemotherapy, radiation therapy, or mixture of both, which depends on age, gender, severity of cancer, etc. I have uploaded an image of Hodgkin's lymphoma on CT soft tissue neck.

References:

http://www.mikety.net/X-rays/HL-neck-a.jpeg

http://www.lymphomainfo.net/hodgkins/description.html