Understanding Hodgkin's Disease - Symptoms

What Are the Symptoms?

Symptoms of Hodgkin's disease are non-specific and may include:

• Painless swelling of one or more lymph nodes, with no recently accompanying infection.
• Symptoms stemming from pressure of swollen lymph nodes on nearby organs or structures. These may include cough and shortness of breath, abdominal pain and swelling, Horner's syndrome (a neurological problem affecting the face and eyes, due to damage to nerves in the neck), nerve pain, and leg swelling.
• Fever, either persistent or alternating with periods of normal temperatures.
• Pain in lymph nodes after drinking alcohol.
• Drenching night sweats.
• Unintentional weight loss (more than 10% over six months)
• Bone pain.
• Increased susceptibility to infections.
• Total body itching.

Call Your Doctor If:

• You notice one or more painless, swollen lymph nodes and you have not had a recent infection.
• You develop an unexplained fever, either persistent or interspersed with periods of normal temperature.
• You regularly awaken at night drenched in sweat.
• You begin to lose weight unintentionally.
• You have unexplained abdominal pain or swelling.
• You develop an unexplained cough, shortness of breath, or wheezing.
• You have unexplainable, severe itching of your skin.
• You begin to contract more frequent infections.