Blood cancer symptoms may appear in your bedsheets – signs of Hodgkin lymphoma

NHS doctor explains the different treatments for lymphoma

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Lymphomas sadly affect roughly 2,100 more people every year in the UK. Their most common symptoms include painless swelling of the lymph nodes in your neck and elsewhere in your body. They may also bring on weight loss. But not everyone knows lymphomas may leave massive clues during your sleep.

The disease can bring on difficulty sleeping, but it can also leave your clothes and bed drenched in sweat.

Cancer.net explains: “Many people with Hodgkin lymphoma say their nightclothes or the sheets on the bed were so wet they needed to be changed during the night.”

This sweating may also occur during the day, states the health body. But given how much you’re likely to sweat during periods of hot weather, the symptoms in your bed may be more pronounced for you.

Night sweats, also known as “drenching” by health professionals, are thought to be caused as part of your body’s response to chemicals made in the cancerous cells.

Although this is a common lymphoma symptom, and you should visit your GP if you experience night sweats, it is important not to panic.

Panicking could merely increase the risk of insomnia, and the stress related to that, which may make things worse.

There are several other natural possibilities causing you to become drenched in sweat, such as hormone level changes due to menopause, and bacterial infections.

Having low blood sugar may also cause night sweats, as well as stress and anxiety.

Some more symptoms of lymphoma to look out for include:

• Fatigue
• Itching
• Pain in the lymph nodes following alcohol
• Cough or chest discomfort.

Two of the main types of lymphoma are Hodgkin lymphoma and non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The sole difference between the two is the cells within the blood that are involved with the disease.

In Hodgkin’s disease, lymphatic tissue anywhere in the body can be affected.

It mostly affects those in their late 20s and men in their 50s although older men are more likely to have it.

Most lymphomas tend to grow slowly and patients can go years without symptoms springing up. But after several years, they can suddenly progress rapidly, causing deadly symptoms, explains US health body Cedars Sinai.

This makes it vital to visit your GP as soon as you experience the symptoms described above.

What treatments are available?

The main treatments for both non-Hodgkin and Hodgkin lymphoma are chemotherapy or radiotherapy.

Chemotherapy may be undergone alone but can be followed by radiotherapy.

This chemotherapy may be given directly into the vein if the doctors believe the cancer is curable.

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