If you experience excessive night sweating then please don`t take it lightly as it might also be due to cancer. Yes, it`s true!!
Many of us might have been aware that excess night sweating could be due to other reasons like stress, hot/humid climatic conditions, eating spicy foods etc. It is true that we would not associate excess night sweating with cancer but only relate it with other reasons mentioned above. If you sweat lightly then, there is no need to worry. Truth is that if the sweating is heavy and the bedsheets need to be changed then night sweating is really a cause for concern.
How cancer is related to excess night sweating:
Though the exact reason why excess night sweating could be due to cancer is still not clear, it is believed that when the body is trying to fight cancer then changes in the hormones could lead to excess night sweating. It is worth mentioning here that hyperthermia observed during cancer could lead to profuse night sweating.
There are some types of cancer that could cause excess night sweating and they are
Lymphoma:
Lymphatic system is a network of vessels and organs that would help the body to combat infection. There would be swelling of our lymph nodes. It must be noted that excess night sweating could be due to Hodgkin`s lymphoma or due to Non-Hodgkins lymphoma.
Leukaemia:
When cancer occurs in the blood cells, then it is leukaemia. Those with acute leukaemia have profuse night sweatings in them.
Melanoma:
On any part of our body, skin cancer or melanoma could occur. Point is that if melanoma has spread to other parts in the body then it could result in excess night sweats.
Breast, prostate and lung cancers:
It is well known that breast cancer and prostate cancers are one of the most common cancers in women and men respectively. Both women as well as men could get lung cancer. Though night sweating are less common symptoms of these cancers but it could occur when these cancers are spread to other parts of the body.
Multiple myeloma:
White blood cells or WBC`s help us to fight any infection etc and multiple myeloma is cancer of plasma cells or type of WBCs. Those with multiple myeloma would have profuse night sweatings. It is believed that the presence of cancer cells would relelease certain substances that could lead to temperature increase.