Painful to the touch, soft and sliding enlarged lymph nodes are most often an expression of an infection in the body. As the inflammation is calmed down, the lymph nodes, as a rule, cease to be tender to touch and gradually shrink. The most dangerous, however, are painless, hard and compact enlarged lymph nodes, because their presence may indicate an active neoplastic process (e.g. lymphoma, leukemia or neoplastic metastasis). In the event of such changes, an urgent ultrasound examination of the lymph nodes should be made.