The goal is to improve your quality of life and that of your family, friends and carers. You can receive palliative care at the same time as cancer treatment. The Cancer Council booklet Living with advanced cancer may be helpful to read. Regularly attending your doctor and dentist for check-ups, and flagging any changes to your throat and neck is important. This page has been produced in consultation with and approved by:. The type of pain felt in the abdomen can vary greatly.
Children may feel stomach pain for a range of reasons and may need treatment. Around half of cases of anal fissures heal by themselves with proper self-care and avoidance of constipation. People are less sensitive to smells the older they get, and women tend to have a more acute sense of smell than men.
Anyone of any age can be struck by appendicitis, but it seems to be more common during childhood and adolescence. Content on this website is provided for information purposes only. Information about a therapy, service, product or treatment does not in any way endorse or support such therapy, service, product or treatment and is not intended to replace advice from your doctor or other registered health professional.
The information and materials contained on this website are not intended to constitute a comprehensive guide concerning all aspects of the therapy, product or treatment described on the website.
All users are urged to always seek advice from a registered health care professional for diagnosis and answers to their medical questions and to ascertain whether the particular therapy, service, product or treatment described on the website is suitable in their circumstances.
The State of Victoria and the Department of Health shall not bear any liability for reliance by any user on the materials contained on this website. Skip to main content. Home Cancer. Throat cancer. A cancer that grows in the digestive system can block it, or partly block it. So food can't go through the gut and the nutrients and calories you need can't be absorbed.
You might be able to have surgery to remove the blockage. But if this is not possible, your medical team will do all they can to control your symptoms. When cancer blocks the lungs, there may eventually be not enough healthy lung tissue to allow you to absorb the oxygen you need. If you have advanced cancer, you might not have the strength to fight off a lung infection, even with strong antibiotics.
So the infection can eventually lead to death. Cancer in the bones can cause calcium to be released into the bloodstream. This can affect the calcium balance of the body. Normally the body has systems to correct this, but when the imbalance becomes too great the systems don't work any more. There is treatment to bring calcium levels back to normal, but these only work for a limited time.
Then the calcium levels can continue to rise in the blood. High levels of calcium in the body can cause you to become unconscious and eventually die. Cancer cells can affect the bone marrow. The bone marrow if a spongy material that fills the bones. It produces very early cells called stem cells which then develop into new blood cells.
Eventually, you might not have enough healthy bone marrow to make new:. The liver is the chemical factory of the body. In the general population, the chance of having a diagnosis of one of these cancers is around 1. Laryngeal cancer accounts for around 0. Around 0. The treatment plan and outlook for cancer will depend on the type.
A biopsy will show what type of cancer cell is present. The most common type of throat cancer is squamous cell carcinoma, which affects the flat cells lining the throat. This cancer develops in the pharynx, the hollow tube that runs from behind your nose to the top of your windpipe. Pharyngeal cancers that develop in the neck and throat include:. The risk factors for throat cancer will depend on the type, but here are some factors that may increase the risk of developing oropharyngeal and laryngeal cancer:.
Oral HPV is a sexually transmitted virus that affects around 10 percent of men and 3. Males are more likely to develop oropharyngeal or laryngeal cancers than females. While the overall rate is higher among white people, it is significantly higher for Black males compared with all females and with males from other races, according to statistics published by the NCI.
A study notes that the difference in survival rates for laryngeal cancer between Black and white American males increased rather than decreasing between and The study authors suggest that socioeconomic factors, a later stage at diagnosis, and less access to appropriate treatment could be the reasons. According to the NCI, alcohol use and smoking combine to form the biggest risk factor for developing these cancers.
This makes limiting alcohol consumption and avoiding smoking two main ways of helping prevent head and neck cancers. At your appointment, your doctor will ask about your symptoms and medical history.
To check for throat cancer, your doctor will perform a direct or an indirect laryngoscopy or will refer you to a specialist for the procedure. A laryngoscopy gives your doctor a closer view of the larynx. They may use special mirrors to see these areas or insert an endoscope into your throat for a clearer view.
A panendoscopy allows the doctor to see the larynx, esophagus, mouth, nasal cavity, and possibly the lungs at one time. If cancer is present in one location, it can also occur in other areas prone to the same risk factors, such as smoking.
If these tests show changes that could indicate cancer, your doctor may order a tissue sample to be taken called a biopsy for testing. They will also order imaging tests, such as an X-ray , CT scan , MRI scan, or ultrasound to help get a correct diagnosis.
Blood tests cannot show if cancer is present in the mouth or throat, but they can help assess your overall health. If your doctor needs more detail about your gullet, you may need to have an X-ray after drinking a chalky liquid called a barium swallow. The barium swallow helps show any problems with the gullet on an X-ray. A bone scan can show if cancer has spread to the bones.
Hearing test: The most common chemo drug used to treat oral cavity and oropharyngeal cancer, cisplatin, can cause ringing in the ears or even hearing loss. You might have your hearing checked with an audiogram before starting treatment and your chemotherapy might be changed if your hearing is poor to start with. Nutrition and speech tests: A nutritionist might check your nutrition status before, during, and after treatment to try and keep your body weight and protein levels as normal as possible.
A speech therapist might test how well you swallow and speak. They might give you exercises to do to help strengthen the muscles so that you can eat and talk normally after finishing treatment. Blood tests: Blood tests are not used to find cancer of the oral cavity or oropharynx, but they can tell the doctor more about your overall health, like your kidney or liver function. Quit smoking: If you smoke cigarettes or use chewing tobacco, your doctor might talk to you about quitting all tobacco products before starting treatment.
Smoking while getting cancer treatment can cause problems such as poor wound healing after surgery, more side effects from chemo, and a higher chance of infection. If you have oral cavity or oropharyngeal cancer, the doctor will want to find out how far it has spread. This is called staging. Knowing the stage will help your doctor decide what type of treatment is best for you.
The stage describes the spread of the cancer in the place it started. It also tells if the cancer has spread to nearby organs or to organs farther away. Your cancer can be stage 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4. The lower the number, the less the cancer has spread. A higher number, like stage 4, means a more serious cancer that has spread from where it started. Be sure to ask the doctor about the cancer stage and what it means for you.
You might get more than one type of treatment. Some of these cancers are in places that are hard to operate on. Still, surgery may be used to take out the cancer and an edge of healthy tissue around it. In some cases, all or part of the tongue, throat, voice box, or jaw bone may need to be removed. Surgery may also be used to take out lymph nodes in the neck that might have cancer.
Surgery can also be used to help you do things that the cancer may have changed. Some surgeries can even help rebuild part of the throat. Any type of surgery can have risks and side effects. Ask the doctor what you can expect. If you have problems, let your doctors know. Doctors who treat people with oral cavity and oropharyngeal cancers should be able to help you with any problems that come up. Radiation uses high-energy rays like x-rays to kill cancer cells. It can be given alone or along with chemotherapy called chemoradiation.
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