May 9, 2026

Added: 2026-05-16

[00:00:00]Most people do one of two things with swollen lymph nodes. They panic or they ignore them completely. And honestly, both can be a mistake. Lymph nodes swell for a lot of normal reasons such as a cold or a sore throat or a dental infection, even a simple virus. That's common and usually they go back down.

[00:00:16]What matters is the pattern. What concerns me more is when a lymph node is still there weeks later or getting bigger, if it's hard instead of soft, if it's fixed instead of movable or showing up with other symptoms like weight loss, night sweats or unexplained fatigue.

[00:00:30]That changes the conversation. Most people assume pain means danger, but often the opposite is true. Painful lymph nodes are commonly related to infection. The ones I worry about more often are painless. Another common mistake is only paying attention to the neck, but lymph nodes under the collarbone, under the arm or elsewhere can matter too, especially if they persist. I'm not saying every swollen node is cancer. Most are not, but if something has been there for weeks and your body is telling you it's not going [music] away, don't just keep checking it in the mirror. Get it evaluated because sometimes the delay starts with I thought I should just wait and see.

[00:01:01]I'm Dr. Rivard, a Yale-trained oncologist. Follow me for more cancer-related tips.