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Have you been suffering any constitutional symptoms? Although lymphomas often present originally with a painless mass in the neck, as the disease progresses other symptoms will show. The so-called 'B symptoms' are unintentional weight loss (more than 10% in six months), fever and nocturnal sweating. Less common symptoms include extreme fatigue, itchyness and (if it is Hodgkin's Disease), pain after drinking alcohol. Of course, lymphoma can present in many other ways too, depending on where the mass is. A chest tumour can cause persistent coughing, for example.

It would be unusual after eighteen months for no other symptoms or tumours to have manifested. The average life-expectancy for aggressive and intermediate non-Hodgkin's lymphomas that remain untreated is about a year to a year and a half, so it is unlikely to be one of these. Hodgkin's disease can develop either fast or slow, but 'B symptoms' are often to be seen. There is also a group of indolent lymphomas, more common among the middle-aged and elderly (whereas Hodgkin's disease is found more in teenagers and young adults). These grow slowly and can be symptomless for some time. Sometimes these can go spontaneously into remission before growing again.

Only a biopsy can tell what the lump is. A CT scan of the neck, chest and abdomen will, however, rule out other growths that cannot be seen or felt. The causes fpr lymph nodes to swell are too numerous to list. Although cancer is one, very few cases of lymphadenopathy seen by physicians will be caused by this. Blood tests would not necessarily show up all bacteria or viruses unless a culture study for a specific infection was ordered.
neck nodes can also swell from things such as tooth decay and ear infections.