Throat cancer is a rare form of cancer that develops in the throat, larynx, or tonsils. Throat cancer affects many organs, such as the ear, tongue, neck, skin, etc. The three main types of throat cancer are laryngeal, hypopharyngeal, and oropharyngeal, which include oral cancers.
What are the early symptoms of throat cancer?
Some of the most common symptoms include:
- Sore throat: Throat cancer can cause pain or burning when chewing and swallowing food. You may feel like food is stuck in your throat.
- Hoarseness: changes in your voice or not speaking clearly
- Ear pain: pain in the ear continuously for more than two weeks or if there is constant pain in your ear while eating,
- Weight loss: unexplained weight loss is often the first noticeable symptom of cancers
- Difficulty swallowing: the inability to swallow foods or liquids with ease. Feel choking at the time of swallowing food or liquid.
- Cough: people with cancer may also develop a persistent cough.
- Neck mass or Lump in your neck: An enlarged lymph node in your neck or Swelling of one or more lymph nodes in the neck is a common symptom of throat cancer as well as other head and neck cancers.
Causes:
- You get throat cancer when some cells in your throat get a change in their genes. This change is unexplained by doctors, but these things can trigger it more likely:
- Smoking for a long time, tobacco is the biggest risk factor for all head and neck cancers, including throat cancer.
- Drinking alcohol regularly drives up your risk even more than smoking.
- HPV or Human papillomavirus is linked to cancers in the back of the throat, including tongue and tonsil cancers.
Treatment
The signs and symptoms of throat cancer may be difficult to identify in the early stages of the disease. If there is a pain in the throat or if you feel any kind of lump in the throat or you are having other symptoms, then first of all go to an ENT specialist. It can develop quickly, so early diagnosis is the key to successful treatment. They will ask for an ultrasound, X-ray, CT scan or MRI to be done.
Throat cancer is treated by Best ENT Specialist in Gurgaon with the help of medicine, chemotherapy, etc. Surgery is used in a slightly more serious condition. If confined to the surface of the throat, cancer can be treated using endoscopy.
