A tumor is a mass or lump. This may be a NEOPLASM, HYPERPLASIA, distention, swelling, or anything that causes a local increase in volume.
Not all tumors are cancers, and not all cancers are tumors. See Terms
Related to Diagnostics for details.
But
when you have lymphoma, the word tumor often refers to a
cluster of malignant lymphocytes that form a mass. When the
mass exists in a lymph node, it causes the lymph node to
enlarge. It takes about billion malignant cells to form a 1 cm
lymphoid tumor.
See Lymphoma simplified for
details about malignant cells.
See Lymphatic system for details
about lymphatic organs.
Lymph node with malignant cells
forming a tumor
The enlargement of a lymph node by a tumor is also referred to as
lymphadenopathy. But not all lymphadenopathy indicates
lymphoma. Swollen lymph nodes may be caused by inflammatory
reactions of the immune system, so-called reactive
conditions.
Regarding common terms related to tumors, Lance (nhl-follic)
writes: "Tumor burden = tumor load = the total amount of tumor material
distributed throughout the body, including bone marrow.
This can be differentiated from bulky tumor. Bulky tumor is when individual masses are about 10 cm in diameter or
larger.
When a person undergoes treatment, the tumors die off quickly at first,
(tumor lysis) and this dead cellular material has to be filtered out of the
bloodstream by the kidney and liver. In a person with high tumor burden, there is a
large amount of dead cells to be dealt with. Often, the person gets sick from this rapid increase in cellular
detritus and the strain it puts on the body's systems.
Treatment protocols are sometimes different for high tumor burden and/or bulky
tumors to reduce the effects of tumor lysis."
