Symptoms

A doctor should be seen if any of the following symptoms persist for longer than two weeks:

• painless swelling in the lymph nodes in the neck, underarm, or groin
• fever
• night sweats
• tiredness
• weight loss without dieting

If a patient has AIDS and symptoms of lymphoma, a doctor will carefully check for swelling or lumps in the neck, underarms, and groin. If the lymph nodes don't feel normal, the doctor may need to cut out a small piece of tissue and look at it under the microscope to see if there are any cancer cells. This procedure is called a biopsy.

In general, patients with AIDS-related lymphoma respond to treatment differently from patients with lymphoma who do not have AIDS. AIDS-related lymphoma usually grows faster and spreads outside the lymph nodes and to other parts of the body more often than lymphoma that is not related to AIDS. Because therapy can damage an already weak immune system even further, patients who have AIDS-related lymphoma are generally treated with lower doses of drugs than patients who do not have AIDS.