Lymph Nodes

Dodger center fielder Brett Butler said he has been told that the lymph nodes removed during his second surgery were not malignant, an indication the cancer has not spread. Butler had one cancerous thumb-sized lymph-node tumor removed during surgery May 3, and 49 other lymph nodes were taken May 21 and tested. Butler called the Dodgers from his Atlanta home to inform the team that biopsy results showed that the 49 lymph nodes were all benign.

Elizabeth Edwards, wife of former Democratic vice presidential candidate Sen. John Edwards, has begun chemotherapy to shrink a half-dollar-sized lump in her breast. Doctors found no sign the cancer had spread, a family spokesman said Wednesday. After a 16-week chemotherapy course, Edwards will take a four- to six-week break. Georgetown University Medical Center doctors who are treating Edwards will then surgically remove the lump.

Removing and examining lymph nodes is a routine part of surgery for invasive breast cancer. Determining whether cancer cells have spread to the lymph system helps doctors "stage" the disease -- assess how extensive it is -- and then decide whether additional therapy, such as chemotherapy and radiation, is necessary. Traditionally, doctors perform a procedure called axillary (meaning underarm) lymph node dissection.

After all the cancer that was evident was removed in a three-hour operation Tuesday on Brett Butler's neck and throat, surgeon William Grist said that he is optimistic about the Dodger center fielder's chances for a full recovery. "Everything went as well as it possibly could have," Grist, Emory University Hospital's chief of head and neck surgery, told Butler's wife, Eveline, upon emerging from the operating room. "Nothing happened that we didn't plan."

In a development unusual in an era when most disease-causing agents have already been found, government researchers have identified a new bacterium that causes a serious lymph node infection in some patients with suppressed immune systems. "The discovery of new bacteria is not uncommon, but discovering an organism that causes human illness is certainly unique," said Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, director of the National Institutes of Health.

"It's a heartbreaking experience," says Diane Ehlers, whose leg started to swell up several years after she underwent radiation therapy for recurrent cervical cancer. The Stamford, Conn., woman, whose cancer surgery required lymph node removal, then learned she had lymphedema--a condition caused by an accumulation of lymph fluid that produces swelling. That was 10 years ago, a time when there was no effective treatment, Ehlers says. "I was out there with no help," she says.

In a pre-dawn move described as "very rare," accused double murderer O.J. Simpson was moved Thursday to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he underwent minor surgery before being taken back to his cell in the Men's Central Jail. According to a statement issued by Simpson's physician, Beverly Hills internist Dr. Robert Huizenga, the operation involved the removal and biopsy of swollen lymph nodes from the former football star's armpits. Simpson was sedated during the procedure.

The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved a new breast cancer drug for people whose disease has spread to the lymph nodes. The drug, when used after surgery with two other standard drugs, appears to significantly improve survival over another common regimen. But it also carries the risk of more side effects than the other treatments, a factor that raises the inevitable difficult choices patients and their physicians face in making breast cancer treatment decisions.

Scott Radinsky, Chicago White Sox reliever, had a malignant lymph node removed from his neck, and likely will miss the season while undergoing treatment to prevent the spread of Hodgkin's disease. Radinsky, 25, has returned to his home in Simi Valley to begin chemotherapy and radiation treatments that could last six to eight months. Ron Schueler, White Sox general manager, said Tuesday there was an outside chance Radinsky could pitch this year.

Chicago White Sox reliever Scott Radinsky, a former star at Simi Valley High, had a malignant lymph node removed from his neck and likely will miss the season while undergoing treatment to prevent the spread of Hodgkin's disease. Radinsky, 25, has returned to his home in Simi Valley to begin chemotherapy and radiation treatments that could last six to eight months. White Sox general manager Ron Schueler said Tuesday there is an outside chance Radinsky could pitch this year.