EXETER, England – The confirmation that persistent unexplained swollen neck glands can lead to an early diagnosis of lymphoma may be vital in reducing cancer deaths by finding the disease earlier.
Scientists at the University of Exeter Medical School published their study on swollen neck glands in the May edition of the British Journal of General Practice.
The study focused on persistent enlarged neck lymph glands and recommends those patients be referred for further investigation.
This research is the first to investigate the full risk profile for either type of lymphoma in general medical practice, which is where most patients first seek help.
More than 14,500 people are diagnosed with a form of lymphoma annually in the UK, of which nearly 5000 die of the disease, according to figures from 1996 to 1999. The study indicates that more than 6000 of the deaths were avoidable if the disease had been detected earlier.
Researchers maintain that early detection is the key to survival.
On average, they say, more than 40 percent of those patients visited their doctor with symptoms three or more times before being referred for cancer investigations.
The research on swollen neck glands and cancer was shared by the University of Exeter Medical School and the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Bangor in two associated studies funded by the National Institute for Health Research. The studies concluded that persistent swollen glands indicate a high risk of this type of cancer.
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