Intestinal lymphoma is a neoplasm that initially has a benign shape, but after a while becomes malignant. This neoplasm appears in the stomach, and it affects lymphoid tissues, and certain factors contribute to the development of this disease.
The main causes of lymphoma
Scientists have been studying this rare oncological disease for a long time, but to this day they can’t say exactly what causes healthy cells to degenerate into a malignant tumor. Doctors were only able to determine which factors can affect to a greater extent the rate of development of intestinal lymphoma. One of the very first reasons is a person’s hereditary predisposition to any oncological diseases, in addition, the development of this malignant formation can provoke any disturbances in the immune system.
Lymphoma in HIV-infected and seriously ill patients
Very often such a serious disease occurs in HIV-infected people, in addition to that, those people who took drugs containing hormones may also be at risk. Those people who underwent serious transplantation of any internal organs are also susceptible to the disease.
Symptoms
The very first symptoms of intestinal lymphoma in children and adults appear already at the first stages of development, and, first of all, the patient periodically has nausea, and appetite gradually disappears. A person may have a constant feeling of fullness of the stomach. To these symptoms indicating intestinal lymphoma, small pain in the lower abdomen, as well as constipation or diarrhea, are gradually added.
Moreover, at the very first stages of the development of such an oncological disease, the symptoms of small bowel lymphoma such as constant diarrhea most often occur, and after the neoplasm increases significantly in size, the patient already begins severe constipation, which lasts from two days to several weeks, then it becomes chronic. Constant constipation with lymphoma is accompanied by constant and very strong gas formation, the appearance in the stool of bloody or reddish-brown mucus, anemia and bloating. To these symptoms, you can also add a constant burping, which occurs even in cases where a person has not eaten food, as well as disturbances in the work of the heart.
Diagnostics
In order to understand and not be mistaken with how exactly the development of malignant pathologies occurs, it is necessary to conduct a medical examination of the body in a timely manner. There are several different methods for testing, but there are the best of them that give the greatest amount of information about the stage and nature of the resulting tumor.
- Diagnosis of intestinal lymphoma by laparotomy. This procedure is among the surgical operations. The patient's stomach is cut, with the help of a laparotomy, doctors obtain the material necessary for the study. This diagnostic method is the most accurate of all available.
- Diagnostics by x-ray. Using this method, you can diagnose small malignant tumors, as well as understand where metastases originate from.
- Diagnostics by ultrasound. Thanks to this procedure, you can determine what size the existing tumor is, and, in addition, see the condition of both the affected and healthy tissues of the rectum.
- Donate blood for a general analysis and, in addition, undergo a tumor marker test. Studying the results of such an analysis, you can understand which specific organ is affected by the disease. You can view some parameters of the tumor, such as microcytic anemia, and see if the ESR level has increased.
- Perform an endogastric examination. For this diagnostic process, you will need certain equipment. In addition to diagnostics, during the procedure it is possible to collect material that will later be used during a biopsy of the stomach. And also thanks to this study, you can track the presence of pathologies.
- Biopsy. At this stage, the material taken is prepared for sending to various studies, thanks to which doctors will be able to study the existing tumor in more detail.
Treatment
Intestinal lymphoma is still not fully understood, as well as a very rare disease, which was detected in approximately 1% of people. Everyone encounters this type of cancer, and Hodgkin’s lymphomas are secondary-type malignancies and are found only rarely. With this pathology, metastases are located in the intestine, as for the lesion, it may be in some other place. More often, doctors come to doctors who have been diagnosed with a non-Hodgkin variant of the tumor in the intestine.
Two types of intestinal lymphoma are found in patients aged 50 years, moreover, in women this disease is detected much less often than in men. In addition, one should pay attention to the fact that in only 20% of cases, neoplasms are formed in the small intestine, and this cancer is most often diagnosed in the colon.
Treatment plan
Unlike many other oncological diseases, intestinal lymphoma clearly manifests itself at the very initial stages, so patients who feel discomfort from the onset of symptoms are promptly sent to a doctor. Naturally, with the treatment started on time, the chances of recovery without relapse increase significantly. After a patient who has vivid symptoms of this cancer is sent to a doctor, a diagnosis is made.
As soon as the diagnosis is finally confirmed, an individual treatment plan is drawn up for a patient with intestinal lymphoma, which can be of two types.
The choice of therapy
In some cases, treatment begins with surgery using the most modern equipment, and then the result is fixed by chemotherapy or radiation therapy. In other cases, treatment begins with chemotherapy without surgical procedures, but with such a treatment process, the risk of damage to the intestinal walls increases. In addition, such therapy may be accompanied by severe vomiting, constant nausea, which may not stop during the entire treatment, the patient may also experience severe pain. And this is due to the fact that lymphoma is highly sensitive to those drugs that are used in chemotherapy. If the patient can hardly tolerate the procedure, then an emergency operation may be prescribed. If the disease is at the very initial stage without vivid symptoms of intoxication and massive damage to the lymph nodes, then the doctor may prescribe radiation therapy.
To obtain consistent results, chemotherapy and radiation therapy are combined, most often such a combined method is used for cases when the cancer is already in the second stage. First, such patients are prescribed chemotherapy, which includes four or six courses, then the result is fixed by radiation therapy, in which the neoplasm is exposed to x-rays.
If the patient had the initial stage of Hodgkin's lymphoma, then the doctor can prescribe radiation therapy according to a radical program, in this case, not only those lymph nodes that were affected by the disease, but all the surrounding areas are exposed to gamma rays. Such a radical version of radiation therapy is also used to prevent relapse.
Why is it so important to treat in a timely manner?
Doctors warn that timely treatment can help to cope with this serious disease in most cases, so it is very important to go to an appointment with a local therapist or oncologist at the very first signs of this disease. I must say that the methods of treating lymphoma are constantly changing and improving, for this purpose, improved drugs and technologies are used. But, the patient’s task is to pay attention to the symptoms that appear and immediately seek help from doctors, since at the first stages lymphoma is treated more successfully and faster, relapses occur less often. In addition, the patient’s task is to strictly follow all the recommendations of the oncologist, it is very important to constantly maintain immunity and monitor your diet, include more useful and very high-quality products.
Forecast
A doctor can make any prognosis for intestinal lymphoma only after determining the specific stage of the disease. At the initial stages, all prognoses are good, if treatment is started on it, then patients survive in 90% of cases, and the possibility of re-illness is 15%. Even if the disease is at its latest stage, a person can still hope for a positive outcome. Almost half of those who have suffered this disease can live in a calm rhythm for at least five years. About a third of patients suffer from a second disease, but the second half, unfortunately, dies.