Oropharyngeal Cancer
Oropharyngeal cancer is usually squamous cell cancer by type. It occurs on the tonsils, or base of the tongue, soft palate or back of the throat. It is often caused by either smoking or alcohol or from a virus.
Symptoms
The commonest symptoms are of the sensation of something in the throat, often associated with pain and /or earache with difficulty or pain with swallowing. Most patients with oropharyngeal cancer also have a neck lump where cancer has spread to nearby lymph glands.
Causes
It is becoming more common. This is mainly due to the increasing prevalence of cancers caused by a virus (The HPV – Human Papilloma Virus number 16). This virus is on everyone and 99% of individuals have had it on their skin or in their mouths at one time or another. It is naturally cleared by the body immune system 99% of the time but in a few unlucky individuals, the virus causes a series of changes to the cells which lead to cancer formation.
Fortunately, virally induced cancers have a much better cure rate than smoking-related cancers.
Treatments
Very small tumours are sometimes amenable to surgery. Mr Repanos performs this surgery with a Robot (Da Vinci Robot) and the procedure is called TORS – Transoral Robotic Surgery. Often the lymph glands in the neck need to be treated with surgery (Neck dissection).
The other option with slightly larger tumours or in tumours in anatomically needed areas, that cannot be removed, is Radiotherapy. Sometimes radiotherapy can be accompanied by chemotherapy.
Most tumours are treated with the aim of curing the patient.
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