One of the more serious pathologies that can affect your immune system is lymphoma.. In this type of cancer, there is a proliferation of malignant lymphocytes and, although it can be detected early and locally, it is also easy to spread through lymphatic tissue. The stimulation of the immune system or complementary treatments could help to strengthen the immune system and combat the disease.

15 September marks World Lymphoma Day, a day that aims to raise awareness of lymphoma in the world. to know the symptoms of this pathology in order to allow its early detection. The lack of knowledge about this disease is great and, unfortunately, it is real cases such as that of the actor Dani Rovira, which give prominence to this type of disease.

Although there are different types of lymphomas, in general are characterised by the fact that they originate in the ganglia and are not painful.. These data, however, say little about a disease that is slow to be diagnosed, with around 62 percent of patients receiving an initial misdiagnosis.

With a preventive approachIn this article we would like to tell you what lymphoma is and how biological medicine can help the immune system in a complementary treatment.

What is lymphoma

Lymphoma is a cancer affecting lymphocytescells of your immune system responsible for fighting infections. Specifically, B-lymphocytes are those that generate antibodies, while T-lymphocytes activate antibodies and destroy foreign cells and viruses.

The lymphocytes are found in the lymphatic tissueThis system is made up of very fine ducts that branch out throughout your body. Because of this, lymphomas can appear throughout the body and spread to other tissues and organs.

It is not known which reasons that promote the development of lymphomasexcept in cases associated with viruses - such as Eipsten- Barr virus, HIV or bacterial infections.

In addition to these pathologies resulting from an infection, there are other risk factors such as immune system deficiency, exposure to radiation, or age. Although there are no studies that establish a direct relationship, this type of cancer is associated with chemicals such as certain medicines or glyphosates. In this sense, at Biosalud Análisis we have a specific test to detect whether glyphosate is affecting our bodies.

How is lymphoma detected?

A lymphoma is identifiable when a the lymph node has clearly increased in size in your armpits, groin or neck. This is the main difference between lymphomas and other types of cancer such as breast or lung cancer: as they spread, they can eventually affect the lymph nodes; in the case of lymphomas, they arise directly in the lymph nodes.

Normally, these lumps or lymph nodes are not painful. However, they can also appear in less accessible areas such as the abdomenThe diagnosis and identification of this condition is more delayed because you are not aware of its presence, usually when other related symptoms appear, which makes it necessary to explore this option.

These symptoms include splenomegaly (enlargement of the spleen), fevers of more than 38 degrees Celsiusprofuse night sweats o weight loss notable in the last 6 months.

Types of lymphoma

Although there are many types of lymphoma (more than 60 have been identified), they are usually classified into two categories according to the cells affected:

Hodgkin's lymphomaAlthough it accounts for only 10 % of lymphomas, it is the most common among young people and adolescents. However, the average cure rate is 80 % with current treatments.

Non-Hodgkin's lymphomaAlso called NHL. According to the rate of growth it is classified into 2 groups:

- Aggressive (or high-grade) lymphoma. It grows and spreads rapidly causing severe symptoms.

- Indolent (or low-grade) lymphoma. They are less rapid and less aggressive and may take years for lymphadenopathy to appear.

Supporting complementary treatment

Chemotherapy, radiotherapy, biological and targeted therapy are the usual methods of treating lymphoma. If you are diagnosed with this disease, it will be your medical team who will decide on the plan of action to be followed depending on how well developed the patient is. and your characteristics as a patient.

In highly specialised centres such as Biosalud Day Hospital, in addition to we accompany oncological treatment with complementary treatments that can boost the immune system and reduce the side effects of drug treatment.

The pillars of a complementary treatment are nutritional, immunogenetic and immunoactivating treatment; molecular hyperthermia, detoxification and oxygenation and psycho-emotional care.

The survival rate for people with lymphoma is 87 %, This is an encouraging figure for patients and an indication of the good results of treatments for this disease.