Early symptoms of childhood lymphoma

Lymphocytes are cells that everyone has. Because of its variability, many people pay more attention to it in daily life. A baby is a new and special baby for parents. Many people know that in the early stages of a baby's life, the body's immune system and various functions are not fully developed, and it is easy to develop some physical diseases at this time. Pediatric lymphoma is a common tumor disease among children. So what are the early symptoms of pediatric lymphoma?

What are the causes of pediatric lymphoma?

1. Viruses

The earliest human lymphoma confirmed to be associated with Epstein-Barr virus infection was Burkitt lymphoma. In Central Africa, this disease mainly occurs in children aged 3 to 12 years old and is related to certain climatic conditions. It accounts for more than half of local childhood tumors, and only 5% of patients are over 20 years old. Although there are sporadic cases in other parts of the world, they are relatively rare.

Cell biology techniques have proven that the EB virus genome can be found in 98% of Burkitt lymphoma tumors, but only 15% to 20% of sporadic Burkitt lymphomas contain EB virus. The antibodies to the EB virus capsid antigen of patients in epidemic areas are all positive with high titers. The risk of developing this tumor in children who are positive for putamen antigen is 30 times that of the control group. Infection of certain apes with EB virus can cause malignant lymphoproliferative lesions similar to Burkitt lymphoma.

2. Immunodeficiency

Everyone needs to know the main causes of lymphoma. Animal experiments have shown that thymectomy or exposure to anti-lymphoid serum, cytotoxic drugs, and radiation can cause their immune function to be in a low state for a long time, resulting in a high incidence of tumors.

3. Other factors

There are many specific reasons why people develop lymphoma, and we need to know them as early as possible so that we can take preventive measures. Lymphoma is often accompanied by chromosomal abnormalities. For example, Hodgkin's disease often has tri- or tetraploidy, and Burkitt's lymphoma and follicular lymphoma often have chromosomal changes such as (14:18). The relationship between drugs and lymphoma occurrence has been preliminarily confirmed.

What are the symptoms of pediatric lymphoma?

1. Symptoms of childhood lymphoma are usually a rapidly growing abdominal mass. Sometimes the pain is similar to that of other conditions, such as acute appendicitis or acute intestinal obstruction. Laparotomy can be performed. If it is a tumor, a small amount can be removed for biopsy, but removing most of it is not very meaningful. Due to the application of fine needle aspiration under the guidance of CR or ultrasound, the application of laparotomy has gradually decreased.

2. In the mediastinum, the tumor grows particularly fast, which can cause symptoms of superior mediastinum compression in children with lymphoma, causing obvious respiratory failure or difficulty swallowing. These tumors may be complicated by pleural or pericardial effusions. Diagnosis is often difficult at this time because the child's condition is serious and anesthesia for biopsy may not be possible. Aspiration or biopsy of pleural fluid under local anesthesia is probably safest. Patients also commonly present with involvement of the bone marrow, testicles, and, rarely, the central nervous system. Therefore, inspection of these areas is also necessary.

3. The Waldeyer's ring of the head and neck and the superficial cervical lymph nodes are the third most common sites of invasion. When the nasal cavity is invaded, symptoms of nasal obstruction such as snoring or persistent discharge may occur. Difficulty breathing and swallowing are also common.

After reading the above content, everyone knows the causes of lymphoma in children! We also understand the symptoms of lymphoma in children. I hope parents will pay more attention to their children's health and detect and treat it early.