C91.60: Prolymphocytic leukaemia of T-cell type Without mention of complete remission

You have a lymphoma. A lymphoma is a cancer.

With a lymphoma, immune cells divide uncontrollably. As a result, there are a great many immune cells in your body. But these immune cells are not working properly. The diseased immune cells can crowd out other blood cells. As a result, you may have various symptoms. The symptoms are dependent on how many diseased blood cells and how many healthy blood cells there still are. You can have prolonged bleeding or develop bruises for no reason. You may then be ill much more often and more seriously. You may also feel generally weak, anaemic.

The diseased immune cells often accumulate in lymph nodes or in the spleen. This results in the lymph nodes or the spleen being too big. The liver can also be too big. Sometimes the diseased immune cells also accumulate in the bone marrow. The blood cells are formed in the bone marrow. If there are a great many diseased immune cells in the bone marrow, then other blood cells can no longer be produced properly. In your case, there are a great many immune cells in the blood. This is why this is sometimes referred to as blood cancer.

There are types of lymphoma that cause serious symptoms in a short time. But there are also types of lymphoma that are discovered accidentally and only cause a few symptoms at the beginning. In your case the lymphoma is only progressing slowly. In this phase, there are often few symptoms. The disease is then often discovered only by chance. But the disease can quickly get more serious later. This can suddenly make you very sick.