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Dr. Andrew Rynne
MD
Dr. Andrew Rynne

Family Physician

Exp 50 years

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Could Cervical Lymph Nodes Enlargement Recurrence Be Due To Cancer?

hi,

its shahida 28 years old from pakistan i have a problem of cevical lymph nodes enlargement almost more than 1 year
in last december i got some tsets and dignosis of tuberclusis by those and i take medcine of tb for 2 months and my lymph nodes squize abit but after few months those got enlarge in size again now my doc is asking me for a biopsy and i m worried that could it be a cancer?
Wed, 29 Jul 2015
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Radiologist,  's  Response
Hi,
Thanks for writing in.

Sometimes it might get difficult to differentiate between tuberculosis and cancer. TB treatment is to be taken for 6 to 9 months or more for cure. However, if there is no improvement or increase in size and pattern of lymph nodes then a biopsy is always better.

Rarely such increase in size might be seen in drug resistant TB and then after biopsy confirmation, second line of drugs might be started. Cancer is less likely but it is important to rule out any nodal cancer. TB and some cancers like lymphoma might have similar symptoms and therefore it is not possible to make a diagnosis from symptoms. At this stage cancer and TB are completely curable with medicine. Please do not worry.
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Could Cervical Lymph Nodes Enlargement Recurrence Be Due To Cancer?

Hi, Thanks for writing in. Sometimes it might get difficult to differentiate between tuberculosis and cancer. TB treatment is to be taken for 6 to 9 months or more for cure. However, if there is no improvement or increase in size and pattern of lymph nodes then a biopsy is always better. Rarely such increase in size might be seen in drug resistant TB and then after biopsy confirmation, second line of drugs might be started. Cancer is less likely but it is important to rule out any nodal cancer. TB and some cancers like lymphoma might have similar symptoms and therefore it is not possible to make a diagnosis from symptoms. At this stage cancer and TB are completely curable with medicine. Please do not worry.