Can Children Get Lymphoma?
As sad as it is, even children can get lymphoma. In just the United States, childhood non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas make up about 5% of the cases each year. Also, about 10% to 15T of the Hodgkin’s lymphoma cases are diagnosed in children under 16 years of age. Unlike adult non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas, childhood non-Hodgkin’s lymphomas fall into four categories. Forty percent of children get Burkitt’s lymphoma, thirty percent get lymphoblastic lymphoma, twenty percent get large B-cell lymphoma, and ten percent get Anaplastic Large Cell Lymphoma.
It is still unknown as to what causes non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and the incidence of it has continued to increase over the years. It is currently thought that there is probably a genetic factor involved and some trigger may set the cancer off and start it to growing. Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma is not a contagious disease and the child does not put other people at risk when they come into contact with them.
It can be extremely difficult to detect lymphoma. Usually a parent, loved one, or the child themselves notice that something is wrong. Sometimes the child may have swollen lymph nodes, especially in their upper body. At other times, the child may experience a lack of energy. In extreme cases, he or she may experience a sudden weight loss, fever, night sweats, or an unexplained itching. A lot of the diagnoses in children are done during a normal annual exam. Often, the diagnosis comes as a shock to the entire family.
This type of lymphoma is officially diagnosed by a biopsy. The doctor will need to surgically take a tissue sample and have a lab study it for lymphoma cells. Your child’s doctor may also order a complete blood work-up to check for abnormal blood cell count, blood chemistry, and an abnormal sedimentation rate. They may also want to do a chest x-ray to check and see if other organs are involved. There are many other tests that they may want to perform on your child to determine how much or if the disease has spread.
On the other hand, childhood Hodgkin’s lymphoma and occurs less frequently than other types of lymphomas. The biggest difference between this type of lymphoma and other types is the presence of Reed-Sternberg cells in the cancerous area. These cells are specific to Hodgkin’s lymphoma. There has been definitive evidence found that the cancerous cells are white blood cells, also known as B-cell lymphocytes. It also appears that the Epstein-Barr virus is a factor in some cases of this type of lymphoma since it appears in about half of the Hodgkin’s lymphoma cases. It is still being researched as to what actually causes the Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
This type of lymphoma is very rare in children who are under 5, but in children under 10, it is more prevalent in boys versus girls. Between 10% and 15% of all of the cases of Hodgkin’s lymphoma are diagnosed in children under 16 years of age. Hodgkin’s lymphoma is not a contagious disease. The diagnosis and treatment of this type of lymphoma has significantly improved in recent years and it now has a high survival rate.
The diagnosis of Hodgkin’s lymphoma is pretty much the same as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. It is usually a parent, loved one, or the child themselves that notice that something is wrong. There are five basic types of Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Nodular sclerosis deals with the lymph nodes located in the lower neck, chest, and collarbone and they usually have normal and reactive lymphocytes and Reed-Sternberg cells separated by bands of scar-like tissues. Lymphocyte predominance is where the lymph nodes are made up of reactive lymphocytes and malignant L & H cells. These cells look kind of like popcorn and there are very few Reed-Sternberg cells. The mixed cell form usually has lymph nodes that contain Reed-Sternberg cells and inflammatory cells. Also, the lymphocyte depleted form. There are two different types of this last one: one that has sheets of differing malignant cells and one with few Reed-Sternberg cells and lymphocytes with scar-like tissue. Lastly, there is the nodular lymphocyte predominance Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
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