B-symptoms, including unintentional weight loss, fever, and night sweats, are associated with lymphoma. They play a vital role in cancer staging and determining treatment options. However, other conditions can cause similar symptoms, and a biopsy is necessary for a lymphoma diagnosis.
B-symptoms are nonspecific systemic symptoms that may be associated with the presence of an underlying lymphoma, which is a cancer of the body’s immune system. Three symptoms – unintentional weight loss, fever and night sweats – are considered in this category. These symptoms are traditionally associated with Hodgkin’s disease and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and their presence helps to understand the severity of the underlying disease. Other diseases can cause symptoms similar to B symptoms, so patients with these symptoms should consult a healthcare professional.
Most commonly, experts classify three different symptoms as B symptoms. One is having significant unintentional weight loss, typically greater than 10 percent of body weight, in the past six months. Weight loss achieved through intentional diet and exercise is not considered unintentional weight loss. Another symptom is night sweats severe enough to seep through the affected patient’s clothing and bedding. The final symptom is relapsing fevers, reaching recorded temperatures above 100.4° Fahrenheit (38° Celsius), for at least three days.
B symptoms are most closely associated with Hodgkin’s disease, a type of lymphoma, as well as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Up to a third of patients with Hodgkin’s disease have these symptoms. The prevalence of symptoms in non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma varies depending on the specific subtype of lymphoma that a particular patient has.
In some lymphomas, the presence or absence of B symptoms plays a large role in determining how advanced the cancer is and deciding which treatment modalities are more likely to be successful. They play a vital role in cancer staging, which is a systematic approach towards uniformly classifying the severity of a cancer. For Hodgkin’s disease, the Ann Arbor staging system requires doctors or other health care professionals to determine whether or not symptoms were present in a given patient. The Ann Arbor system includes unintentional weight loss, recurring fevers, and night sweats as examples of these symptoms. Patients who have Hodgkin’s disease with B symptoms may have more extensive disease and require more aggressive treatment.
Patients who have B symptoms do not necessarily have lymphoma. People with any of these symptoms should visit a doctor to help determine the cause. Other conditions ranging from infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, to autoimmune conditions such as adult Stills disease could cause similar symptoms. The diagnosis of lymphoma is never made solely on the presence of B-symptoms and typically requires taking a biopsy of the affected body tissue.
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