Do they ever remove enlarged lymph nodes?

[CLLB]

Please forgive me if this has been addressed before, but do docs ever just remove enlarged lymph nodes? If not, why not? One person on the forum said recently that she had a node that had grown to 8 inches. I don’t have any that large, but I have a couple bothersome ones that I think I could cut out with an X-Acto knife (I’m sort of joking).

[stunned]

I asked the same question at the hospital in August when my tonsils were that enlarged they actually touched each other and i couldn't swallow very well. The nodes in my neck made me look like a hamster.

They won't remove my tonsils unless absolutely necessary for fear of infections from the operation, and i suppose the same is said about large nodes.

Luckily my tonsils and nodes all went down on their own without any intervention, however i am on the verge of starting treatment due to my ever rising WBC and ALC.

Anne

[Newdawn Administrator]

Depends where the enlarged nodes are, the size, whether they’re immediately impacting on something vital and whether they’re part of massive lymphadenopathy. Pointless cutting out one if there’s lots of others and they’re proliferating which may be suggestive of the need for treatment. I have some very large nodes I’d love to see banished but I’d be reluctant to risk surgery around my neck area and radiation on them isn’t so medically popular it seems.

Thankfully treatment does usually sort them and Ibrutinib works it’s shrinking magic pretty quickly (if you are eligible for that).

Best wishes,

Newdawn

[AdrianUK in reply to Newdawn]

Also FCR can often shrink nodes pretty fast. I had loads of nodes most of them around 3-5cm in neck groin and armpits. By the time I’d had just one cycle doctors are struggling to find even one they can actually feel! Feels so good to have a jawline back!

As for surgery it would only really be an option if one node was enlarged only. Or perhaps the tonsils. Mine were touching each other a year ago now and causing me problems breathing sleeping and swallowing. They tried steroids for a couple of days then operated. At that time my nodes hadn’t yet started growing or else they would have probably just given me treatment to shrink everything

[Hidden]

I don't know of anyone who had any removed except for a friend of mine who had the lymph nodes under her left arm removed when she had breast cancer. It had to be done but now her arm is swollen all the time (she told me the name they gave that condition but I can't remember it), but it is from having those lymph nodes removed. So, maybe removing one node can cause swelling some place else???

[OldManNiko]

Funny you should ask. A few years ago I had all these lumps around my neck and shoulders. My general practitioner and I thought they were lipomas, and we referred out to a surgeon to have the most egregious removed. It was this plastic surgeon who got me diagnosed. A CAT scan showed the "lipomas" were concentrated around lymph nodes. A biopsy showed nothing abnormal about the lymph itself. Just a normal, to us, high WBC and ALC. I got surgery to remove these lipomas, 75 stitches across the back of my neck. just to find out it was not lipomas at all. My plastic surgeon referred me to an oncologist//hematolgisit who ran the battery of tests and confirmed a CLL diagnosis. I watched and waited until recently (about 3 years) but the ever increasing size of the lymphs and fatigue associated with CLL made treatment the best choice. Fast forward to today, I am on Ibrutinib, and my lymphs are SLOWLY getting smaller. I asked my doctor about surgical reduction again (My neck is 19 1/2 inches wide now), and he said unless I am having difficulty breathing, swallowing, sleeping, then surgery is about the worst thing to entertain.

[Lola69]

Here they only remove nodes to do a biopsy. for nodes they treat the affliction with medication or if one has first stage SLL then they radiate the area. and they usually shrink.

[CLLB]

Thanks for the info, everyone.

[bayside64]

I have very enlarged lymph nodes around my neck but they are also enlarged throughout my body. I think this is common with CLL patients who are 11q unmutated. Physicians are concerned if they affect an organ or if you can’t turn your neck. It alone is not reason to treat.

[AussieNeil Partner Administrator in reply to bayside64]

Indeed 11q deletion is associated with a bulky lymph node presentation. The SLL presentation can also result in low or even normal lymphocyte blood counts with enlarged nodes.