Presenting clinical features (what brings the patient to the doctor) :- At least 70-75% of patients present because they have noticed the painless development of lymphadenopathy (i.e. enlargement of lymph nodes) – usually in their neck glands or armpits.
Approximately 5% of patients have groin lymph gland enlargement but the vast majority of patients have the disease predominantly in the lymph node regions above the diaphragm.
When the patient presents late in the natural history of the disease, then he/she may have other symptoms such as fevers, night sweats and pruritus/generalised itching. These latter symptoms tend to occur when the patient has considerable lymph nodal disease and would not be expected in the patient who just has one set of nodes involved.
