The primary causes of head and neck cancer are mainly linked to habits of tobacco and alcohol use. The disease is categorized into various types of cancer, each with its own specific signs.
According to the surgeons from the Head and Neck Surgery Department at K Hospital, head and neck cancer is quite common, accounting for about 10% of all cancer types. This type of cancer is considered dangerous to health and life, but if detected and treated early, there is a possibility of complete recovery.
Head and neck cancer occurs when malignant tumors develop in the head and neck region, which includes: the mouth, nose, throat, larynx, hypopharynx, and sinuses. These tumors can grow uncontrollably and metastasize to other parts of the body. This type of cancer is more commonly found in men, particularly those over the age of 50.
The primary causes of head and neck cancer are mainly linked to habits of tobacco and alcohol use. However, head and neck cancer is divided into various types, each with its own specific signs.
Head and neck cancer is quite common, accounting for about 10% of all cancer types. (Image: Freundin).
Below are the types of head and neck cancer and their identifying signs.
Oral Cavity Cancer
Oral cavity cancer is a common type of head and neck cancer. The structures within the oral cavity include: the movable part of the tongue, lips (upper lip, lower lip, corners), cheek mucosa, floor of the mouth, upper jaw gums, lower jaw gums, hard palate, and the intermaxillary cleft. Among these, tongue cancer has the highest incidence rate, around 40%.
In the early stages, the disease often presents no specific symptoms. Patients frequently feel as if there is a foreign object or fish bone lodged in the tongue, experiencing pain or discomfort in the affected area. Symptoms worsen when consuming spicy or hot foods but subside shortly after eating.
Here are some specific signs to be aware of:
- The oral cavity appears swollen, red, and unusually painful.
- Red or white spots may appear on the oral mucosa or tongue. The surface is often uneven, with irregular borders.
- Mucosal lesions, non-healing ulcers lasting more than 2 weeks, or protruding lesions with varying degrees of pain, especially with possible bleeding due to the tumor.
- Presence of lumps or nodules in the mouth or on the tongue.
Nasal and Sinus Cancer
This condition typically occurs in the nasal cavities or sinuses. In the early stages, the disease symptoms are often difficult to detect as they are vague and can be confused with common colds or sinusitis. Therefore, individuals should not overlook the following signs:
- Nasal Symptoms: Patients may experience nasal congestion (often persistent and unilateral), nasal discharge, or mucus dripping down the throat. Prolonged nosebleeds, reduced or lost sense of smell may occur.
- Eye Symptoms: Patients may experience reduced vision, swelling, or unexplained eye edema.
In the early stages, the symptoms are often difficult to detect as they are vague and can be confused with common colds or sinusitis. (Image: Computerhoy).
- Ear Symptoms: Symptoms may include tinnitus, ear fullness, and recurrent otitis media.
- Other symptoms to watch for include facial tingling, frequent headaches, difficulty swallowing, and sore throat.
Salivary Gland Cancer
Salivary gland cancer includes cancer of the parotid gland, submandibular gland, sublingual gland, and minor salivary glands. Among these, parotid gland cancer is the most common. This type of cancer is rare in the head and neck region, accounting for about 0.5% of all cancers and approximately 3-5% of head and neck cancers.
tumors can form at any location where salivary glands are present. Salivary glands are crucial as they produce saliva that helps keep the mouth moist, facilitating swallowing and digestion.
Although salivary gland cancer is rare, it is highly dangerous, potentially causing deformities and facial paralysis.
Some signs of salivary gland cancer include:
- Pain in the area around the mouth and neck, with unexplained, persistent pain.
- A lump or mass in the cheek, chin, mouth, or neck that is usually painless.
- Tingling, swelling, or pain in the facial area, jaw, or neck. In some cases, weakness or paralysis may occur, affecting the ability to move certain facial muscles.
- Differences in the shape or size of the face or neck, along with difficulty fully opening the mouth or swallowing food.
Laryngeal Cancer
Laryngeal cancer is a relatively common type of cancer, accounting for about 2% of all cancer cases. Due to the complex anatomical structure of the larynx and hypopharynx, initial symptoms are often subtle, and patients may not immediately notice them.
Moreover, early examination often fails to detect early lesions, leading to late-stage diagnosis and complications in treatment.
This disease primarily affects men aged 50-70, but the incidence is increasingly seen in younger individuals and a rising number of cases among women.
Depending on the initial tumor location, symptoms may vary; however, patients often seek medical attention once the tumor has metastasized, complicating the identification of the initial tumor site.
Laryngeal cancer is relatively common, accounting for about 2% of all cancer types. (Image: Remede).
Patients typically exhibit symptoms such as:
- Hoarseness: Persistent and increasingly severe, leading to difficulty in pronunciation, a raspy voice, or loss of voice. This symptom is often seen with tumors in the glottic region.
- Feeling of a lump while swallowing: A sensation of a foreign object within.
- Progressively worsening difficulty swallowing and painful swallowing.
- Shortness of breath: When the tumor grows large enough to compress the glottis, leading to difficulty breathing when inhaling, which may eventually progress to asthma-like symptoms. This symptom is often associated with tumors in the subglottic area.
- Persistent cough: This symptom is often mistaken for many other conditions such as pharyngitis or pneumonia. However, in laryngeal cancer, the cough may be quite subtle or present as a spasm-like reflex.
Nasopharyngeal Cancer
Nasopharyngeal cancer is one of the more prevalent types of regional cancer. Early signs are often sparse and easily overlooked due to being mistaken for symptoms of infections in the ear, nose, and throat. The disease may also present with neck lymphadenopathy from the start, although these nodes are often small and painless, making them easy to miss.
Initial symptoms often appear on one side or in one location and gradually increase in a spreading pattern. The disease is often detected in the following situations:
- Palpable neck lymph nodes: Occurs in over 50% of cases, with common locations being the upper neck nodes (notably Kuttner’s nodes) or multiple nodes on one or both sides of the neck.
- Ear symptoms: Present in 40-60% of cases, typically manifesting unilaterally as conductive hearing loss associated with serous otitis media due to the tumor obstructing the Eustachian tube, tinnitus, or less commonly, ear pain or discharge.
- Nasal symptoms: Nasal obstruction on one or both sides or persistent bloody nasal discharge that does not improve with medical treatment.
- Neurological symptoms: Occur in about 10-15% of cases. They can be pinpointed to specific areas and may present singularly or as damage to multiple nerves, creating neurological syndromes. Common symptoms include diplopia and strabismus due to invasion of cranial nerve VI (abducens), facial pain or sore throat due to involvement of cranial nerves V or IX, and headaches or migraines when the tumor invades the cranial cavity.
- Ocular symptoms: Involvement of the eye socket is rare (5% of cases), primarily characterized by proptosis or oculomotor paralysis.
Thyroid Cancer
Thyroid cancer is the most common type of cancer among endocrine tumors (accounting for 92-95%) and constitutes 3.6% of all cancers. The thyroid gland releases hormones that significantly influence several bodily functions.
Symptoms of thyroid cancer are often sparse, with patients frequently presenting to the hospital due to noticeable lumps in the neck that can be seen or felt or discovered incidentally via thyroid ultrasound.
In the early stages, patients rarely experience functional symptoms. However, when the tumor invades or in advanced stages, symptoms may include:
- Hoarseness: Due to tumor pressure on the recurrent laryngeal nerve. This is a suggestive characteristic that the thyroid tumor is malignant, as benign thyroid tumors rarely cause hoarseness.
- Difficulty swallowing: Due to pressure from the tumor on the esophagus.
- Difficulty breathing: Due to tumor invasion into the trachea.
Some patients come to the hospital due to distant metastasis symptoms, only to discover the thyroid tumor upon examination.
Cancer remains a widespread disease with a very high annual mortality rate. Therefore, we should not be complacent about any unusual signs in our bodies.
