What is Follicular Lymphoma?

There are a lot of classifications for lymphoma depending on the morphological characteristics found during biopsy. The major classifications are Hodgkin's and Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, but they are still subdivided agreeing to their grade. Follicular lymphoma is a subcategory of B-Cell lymphoma that is classified under Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.

Follicular lymphoma is an indolent type of Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. This means that this type of lymphoma spreads and affects the body in a slower rate compared to other types of B-cell lymphoma. This classification is quite crucial. The slower a malignancy affects the body, the harder it is to detect. The disease got its name for it manifests itself as malignant follicles in affected body parts under morphological studies.

What Is Leukemia

Follicular lymphoma rarely manifests itself in the early stages like other forms of B-Cell lymphoma. By the time the signs and symptoms warrant a visit to the physician, the follicular lymphoma is already at stage Iii or Iv already. The signs and symptoms are:

- Swollen, rubbery, non-tender lymph nodes greater that 2cm in size. The lymph nodes can be settled at the neck, by the clavicle bone,

- Distended abdomen due to enlarged liver and spleen

- Night sweats

- Unexplained fever

- Unexplained weight loss

- strangeness in breathing

It is still unknown what causes this condition. However, the following risk factors have been attributed to the formation of the said condition:

- Compromise of the immune law - patients undergoing radiation therapy for cancer, or continued intake of immune-suppressant drugs after transplant surgical operation has been attributed to formation of follicular lymphoma.

- Viral infections - Hiv/Aids, Epstein-Barr virus have been related to follicular lymphoma.

Cure for the disease is divided into healing and palliative. However, the healing mode of treatment is applied only during the early stages of the disease and very few patients manifest Stage I and Stage Ii symptoms. Palliative treatment is done when the malignancy has spread straight through the entire body and cannot be corrected.

There are no known exact treatments that can totally cure follicular lymphoma. Radiation therapy and chemotherapy are often utilized to help prevent added spread of the malignancy. Sometimes, bone marrow transplant is utilized when the disease is in relapse to help the body recover and yield non-malignant cells. Even during the policy of treatment, you must sound quarterly check up with your doctor to monitor your improve to see if the treatment is productive or needs changing.

What is Follicular Lymphoma?