Throat Cancer: Starting from Symptoms, Causes, and Treatment

Contents:

• Medical Video: Throat cancer - symptoms to look out for
  
• What is throat cancer?
  
• Get to know the symptoms of throat cancer
  
• Risk factors for throat cancer
  
• Various ways to diagnose throat cancer
  
• The stages of development of throat cancer
  
• What can be done to prevent throat cancer
  

Medical Video: Throat cancer - symptoms to look out for

Although it sounds foreign from other types of cancer, throat cancer is a common condition. In Indonesia alone the incidence of throat cancer, especially nasopharyngeal cancer is known to occupy the 4th position as the most common cancer after breast cancer, cervical cancer, and lung cancer.

Even based on the 2012 GLOBOCAN data quoted from the Ministry of Health page, as many as 87 thousand cases of nasopharyngeal cancer appear annually. In many cases, men who smoke are more at risk for this type of cancer than those who don't smoke.

What is throat cancer?

Throat cancer is a malignant tumor that grows in the voice box, vocal cords, and other parts of the throat such as the tonsils and oropharynx. Just like other types of cancer, malignant tumors that grow in this throat come from uncontrolled abnormal cells.

Although most cancers of this type involve the same cell type, but a more specific term is used to distinguish the part of the throat that is attacked by cancer. Here are some types of throat cancer according to the part of the throat that was attacked.

• Nasopharyngeal cancer attack the top of the throat.
• Oropharyngeal cancerattack the middle of the throat. Often grows on the part of the tonsils.
• Hypopharyngeal cancer attack the bottom of the throat behind the voice box.
• Glottic cancerattack the vocal cords.
• Supraglotic cancerattack tissue above the vocal cords.
• Subglotic cancerattacks the lower part of the vocal cords and above the throat limit.

Get to know the symptoms of throat cancer

Symptoms of this type of cancer in each person is different. However, generally someone who has throat cancer experiences the following signs or characteristics.

• Difficulty swallowing
• Often experience wheezing (breath sounds like a soft whistle or bro)
• Pain in the ear like ringing is not lost
• Chronic cough that does not heal (maybe even to bleed)
• Hoarseness
• A lump in the neck appears
• Weight loss without cause

The various symptoms mentioned above do tend to be similar to other health problems. This often makes this type of cancer difficult to detect. That's why, immediately consult your doctor if you experience the above symptoms, especially those that don't improve or even get worse.

Risk factors for throat cancer

Here are some factors that are thought to increase a person's risk of developing throat cancer.

• Long-term use of tobacco, both in the form of cigarettes and chewing, is a major risk factor for this type of cancer.
• Excessive consumption of liquor.
• Not maintaining good dental and oral health.
• Eat less fruits and vegetables.
• Infected with HPV (Human papillomavirus) HPV can be transmitted through sexual contact such as oral sex.
• EBV infection (Epstein barr virus).
• Gastric Acid or GERD.

Some other risk factors include:

• Gender. Men are five times more likely to develop throat cancer than women.
• Age. People aged 65 years and over have a higher risk.
• Exposure to chemicals long term such as asbestos, nickel and sulfuric acid fumes.

Throat cancer is also often associated with other types of cancer. In some cases, there are people diagnosed with throat cancer and diagnosed with esophageal, lung or bladder cancer at the same time.

This is usually because cancer often has the same risk factors, or because cancer that starts in one part of the body can spread (metastasize) to other parts of the body over time.

Various ways to diagnose throat cancer

In the early stages of the diagnosis, the doctor will ask about your medical history, smoking and drinking habits, and your sexual activities. After that, the doctor will do a physical examination using a special tool to look closer to your throat. If you are suspected of having throat cancer, your doctor will do a more detailed examination to confirm the diagnosis. These types of checks include:

• Endoscopy or laryngoscopy.
• X-ray, CT, MRI, and PET scan. This examination is used to determine the extent of the spread of cancer.
• Biopsy or tissue sampling around the throat.

The stages of development of throat cancer

If the doctor finds an abnormal cancer cell in your throat during the initial examination, the doctor will immediately carry out further tests to find out how far the cancer spreads. This is done in order to help doctors determine the treatment steps to be taken by patients.

The spread of throat cancer is divided into five levels or stages, namely:

• Stage 0: the tumor is only in the tissue in the throat.
• Stage 1: small tumors smaller than 7 cm and only attack the throat.
• Stage 2: the tumor is larger, but has not spread beyond the throat.
• Stage 3: the tumor has spread to other tissues or organs near the throat.
• Stage 4: the tumor has spread to lymphatic tissue or other organs outside the throat.

What can be done to prevent throat cancer

Until now there is no effective way proven to prevent this type of cancer. Even so, you can still reduce the risk of throat cancer by:

• If you smoke, stop smoking now.
• Limit alcohol consumption, it's better to stop consuming alcohol altogether.
• Eat healthy foods that contain balanced nutrition from fruits and vegetables.
• Protect yourself from the dangers of HPV. You can reduce your risk of getting HPV by not changing partners during sex and using condoms every time you have sex. Also consider getting an HPV vaccine.