Common lumps and bumps on and under the skin: what are they?

[AussieNeil]

With a diagnosis of SLL/CLL comes a heightened awareness of any new lumps and bumps; is our CLL becoming aggressive, do we have Richter's Transformation, or is the latest bump due to something innocuous that everyone can experience?

H. Peter Soyer, Professor of Dermatology and Katie Lee, Study coordinator and research assistant, both of The University of Queensland provide an excellent overview of the various causes of lumps and bumps and what we may need to do. Naturally, with CLL, we need to be more proactive than the general audience for which this article was written, so if you are at all concerned, check with your doctor/specialist.

theconversation.com/common-...

Incidentally, I suspect my SLL, which later became CLL, started in a lymph node which suddenly appeared on my thigh and which my GP dismissed as a lympoma. This was perhaps 5 years before my eventual diagnosis. My haematologist later informed me it was a lymph node and checks it occasionally. I can understand the misdiagnosis, given how rare CLL is compared to lympomas, but I still wish it had been correctly diagnosed and treated with radiation - I might have been cured of SLL/CLL...

Neil

[Cllcanada Top Poster CURE Hero]

Can't take any lump lightly, they should be checked. Patients think that Richter's occurs only in the lymph nodes and it certainly does, but not always, it can occur as a small, rapidly enlarging lump, anywhere, as in my case.

This is referred to as extranodal Richter's.

And I do mean anywhere. A recent case study reviewed a CLL patient who had a lump on his penis, biopsy confirmed Richter's transformation... other reports deal with lumps in the mouth, again Richter's.

So as Neil points out... be proactive... Richter's occurs more frequently post treatment, but it can occur at any point, usually 2 years post diagnosis, and risk increases with time from diagnosis.

~chris

[virdieblue]

The hypervigilance that CLL demand is exhausting!

Virginia

[MsLockYourPosts Passed Volunteer]

Elephant point?

[AussieNeil Partner Administrator in reply to MsLockYourPosts]

That's what I thought! Hasn't lost its tusks to ivory poachers either; though I think they might be safe unless the poachers have a good head for heights .

[Salohcin]

Always difficult these lumps. I must have over 100 lypomas on my body and had several removed over the years. I was diagnosed 6 months ago with CLL and have often wondered if there was any link. The doctors have always told me that some people are just prone to lypomas

[fieldmeadow]

I, too, was misdiagnosed a few years before I was eventually diagnosed - when perhaps radiation could have cured me - but I guess I'll never know.

I occasionally ponder on this and feel a little sad. But what's done is done and if we can raised cll awareness through these errors then maybe that is the price we have paid.

At least there are now positive treatment available. Keep well Neil.