Hodgkin's Disease - Diagnosis
Diagnosis involves two steps. First, the doctor must identify Hodgkin's disease as the cause of the patient's symptoms. Second, the doctor must determine how far the disease has progressed.
Hodgkin's disease is usually diagnosed by means of a biopsy. A biopsy is a process in which a small sample of tissue is removed from the infected part
of the patient's body. In the case of Hodgkin's disease, the biopsy is usually done on a lymph node. The sample is then examined under a microscope. The presence of certain characteristic types of cells is evidence of a lymphoma.
Additional procedures are necessary to see how far the disease has spread. For example, a bone marrow biopsy may be conducted to see if the disease has spread to this part of the body. A computed tomography (CT) scan may be ordered to see if the disease has spread to the abdomen, chest, pelvis, and other parts of the body. A CT scan is a procedure by which X rays are directed at a patient's body from various angles and the set of photographs thus obtained assembled by a computer program. This procedure is sometimes called a computerized axial tomography (CAT) scan. A lymphangiogram can also be performed. A lymphangiogram is similar to an X ray of the lymphatic system. It indicates the parts of the system that have become cancerous.
Finding out how far the disease has spread is important because it determines the kind of treatment the patient should have. Most treatments have serious side effects. A doctor wants to use only enough of a treatment to kill the lymphoma, not enough to do other serious damage to the body.
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