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Your lymphatic system is a network of tiny vessels in your body. Just as blood vessels carry blood, lymph vessels carry lymph. Lymph is a fluid that seeps out of the network of tiny blood vessels that run deep in the tissues of your body. Lymph fluid:

• Carries waste products around your body
• Carries cells that are part of your immune system and help fight infections
• Contains protein.

Your lymph vessels take the fluid to your lymph nodes (also called lymph glands). Lymph vessels are very thin. You can't usually see them.

Lymph nodes are part of your immune system, which helps your body fight disease. They're small collections of cells and are found all over your body. Among other places, you have them in your groin, the backs of your knees and under your chin. They're small, and round or oval-shaped. You can't usually feel them unless you're very thin or you have an infection that's made them swollen. You've probably felt the lymph glands on your neck swell up when you have a throat infection, for example.

If you have testicular cancer, cancer cells may be picked up by your lymphatic fluid and carried to lymph nodes in other parts of your body. The first place lymph vessels in your testicles carry fluid to is a collection of lymph nodes in your abdomen.¹ These nodes sit behind your bowels, just in front of your spine. You may hear them called the retroperitoneal lymph nodes or the para-aortic lymph nodes.

If cancer cells reach a lymph node, they may die, start growing, or travel on through your lymph vessels to other parts of your body.

The treatment you have for testicular cancer will depend on whether cancer cells have spread to your lymph nodes. You may have radiation therapy or chemotherapy to kill any cancer cells that have spread. Or you may have an operation to remove them.²

This information is for educational use only, and is not a substitute for prompt professional medical advice. Readers should always consult a physician or other professional for advice and treatment. ©BMJ Publishing Group Limited 2008. All rights reserved.