Is the lymph node a tumor?

People often mention lymph node diseases in life, but many people don’t know much about them. In fact, lymph nodes are important organs in the human body. If there is infection or damage, it will cause lymph node swelling. If lymph node swelling is not treated in time, many complications will occur. Some people think that lymph nodes are tumors. Is this statement correct?

Are lymph nodes tumors?

Cancer can appear in lymph nodes in 2 ways: either it develops in the lymph nodes or it spreads from somewhere else.

Cancer that starts in the lymph nodes is called lymphoma. Lymphoma is divided into Hodgkin lymphoma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

More commonly, cancer that was elsewhere spreads to the lymph nodes. Lymphoma is very easy to be detected as a tumor in the early stages. The most obvious symptom is the appearance of lumps in the neck, armpits, and groin. Such lumps must not be ignored and require timely examination and diagnosis.

How to detect cancer in lymph nodes?

Cancer can spread from where the cancer started (primary site) to other parts of the body.

Normal lymph nodes are small and hard to find, but they can become enlarged when there is infection, inflammation, or cancer. Those lymph nodes that are close to the body's surface tend to become large enough to be felt with the fingers, and some can even be seen. But if there are only a few cancer cells in a lymph node, it may look and feel normal. In these cases, doctors may have to remove all or part of the lymph nodes to check for cancer.

When surgeons remove the primary site of cancer, they may also remove one or more nearby (regional) lymph nodes. Removing a lymph node is called a biopsy. When many lymph nodes are removed, it is called lymph node sampling or lymphadenectomy. When cancer has spread to the lymph nodes, there is a high risk that the cancer may come back after surgery. This information helps doctors decide whether more treatment, such as chemotherapy or radiation therapy, is needed after surgery.

Doctors may also use the needle to obtain a biopsy of one or more lymph nodes. This usually occurs in the setting of swollen lymph nodes. This is called a needle biopsy. The removed tissue is examined under a microscope by a pathologist to check for cancer cells.

Under a microscope, any cancer cells in the lymph nodes will look like cancer cells from the cancer's original site. For example, when breast cancer spreads to the lymph nodes, the cells in the lymph nodes may look like breast cancer cells. The pathologist will write a report detailing the test results. If a lymph node has cancer, the report will describe the shape and number of cancer cells observed.

Doctors may also use scans or other imaging tests to look for swollen lymph nodes deep within the body. Often, swollen lymph nodes near a cancer are thought to contain cancer cells.