Signs of Throat Cancer
- Throat cancer is making headlines as celebrities including Val Kilmer, Eddie Van Halen, Dustin Hoffman, and Dave Mustaine have all battled with the disease.
- Symptoms of throat cancer may include a persistent cough, ear pain, difficulty swallowing, and unexplained weight loss.
- It’s important to not ignore possible cancer signs, and pay attention to how long symptoms you’re experiencing are lasting.
“[Throat] cancer can cause symptoms in the throat including sore throat, pain with swallowing, difficulty swallowing, the sensation of a lump or mass in the throat, ear pain, and less commonly voice changes, hoarseness or difficulty opening the jaw,” Dr. Ryan Hughes, a radiation oncologist at Wake Forest School of Medicine, tells SurvivorNet. “In the majority of patients, [throat cancer] does not cause symptoms in the throat but instead first presents with an otherwise asymptomatic mass in the neck.”
Read MoreThroat Cancer & HPV Vaccine: Explained
Throat cancer is a type of head and neck cancer, where cancerous cells start growing in the throat, voice box, or tonsils. The main causes of the disease include smoking, drinking, a diet without fruits or vegetables, and an acid reflux disease. Currently, there’s no annual screening guidelines for throat cancer unlike other types of cancers such as breast, lung, colon, or prostate. That’s why recognizing symptoms and consulting your doctor is so important. There’s also another cause of throat cancer, the human papillomavirus (HPV). Studies have shown that the virus can cause a majority of head and neck cancer diagnoses. In order to prevent this, experts recommend all children get the HPV vaccine.Throat cancer survivor Michael Rees advocates for awareness
Symptoms of Throat Cancer
What can make throat cancer a tricky disease to diagnose is that many of the symptoms are similar to just a common cold. However, there are a few signs that differentiate a possible cancer diagnosis as just a need for some chicken soup and sleep.
Signs can include:
- A persistant cough
- Changes in your voice
- Difficulty swallowing
- Ear pain
- A lump or sore in the neck that will not heal
- A persistant sore throat
- Unexplained weight loss
Most of the time, a persistent cough does not automatically mean you should assume it’s throat cancer. However, since there’s no screening guidelines, it’s important to pay attention to change to your body and how long they’ve been happening. Men sometimes ignore symptoms in order to avoid a visit to the doctor, but when it comes to being proactive about your health, you’ve got to take the reigns.
“While many of these symptoms can be caused by non-cancer diagnoses such as respiratory infections, warning signs include progression of these symptoms over several weeks and a lack of improvement with conservative measures like antibiotics,” Dr. Hughes says.
Two-time cancer survivor Marc Futterweit encourages all men to not ignore symptoms
HPV’s Link to Throat Cancer
Although tobacco use and alcohol are the two main causes of throat cancer diagnoses, there’s another factor that’s recently been linked to the disease. Studies have shown that 90% of throat cancer diagnoses may be caused by the human papillomavirus (HPV) the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States. And cases have been increasing over several decades.
“What we know now, through science, is going back and looking, decade by decade, the rates of HPV-related head and neck cancer have increased exponentially,” Dr. Ted Teknos, Scientific Director of UH Seidman Cancer Center, tells SurvivorNet. “If you look at the percentage of patients who developed throat cancer, really, cancer of the tonsils and the base of the tongue, in the 80s compared to the 2010s, if you will, the rate of HPV-related head and neck cancers has gone up by 300%.”
Related: Get the Facts: What Do We Know About HPV-Linked Throat Cancer?
Most HPV infections resolve on their own. The immune system clears it out as it does many other infections. But, in some cases, the infection sticks around and over time leads to cancer in the area where the infection began the mouth, throat, genitals or anus. According to Dr. Allen Ho, a head and neck cancer specialist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, it can take 15 to 20 years for HPV to develop from a viral infection into a tumor.
Dr. Ted Teknos explains how HPV is linked to a large number of throat cancer diagnoses
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