Moffitt Experts Answer Common Head and Neck Cancer Questions
Types of head and neck cancers are varied and the location of that cancer can often impact what treatments are best.
For Head and Neck Cancer Awareness Month, we asked members of Moffitt Cancer Center’s Head and Neck Oncology Department about some of the common symptoms and treatments for these types of cancers. Medical oncologist Kedar Kirtane, MD, radiation oncologist George Yang, MD, and physician assistant Melody Mathews answered some common questions about these cancers found above the collar bone.
What are some of the risk factors for head and neck cancer and what does that cover? What is a head and neck cancer?
Kirtane: Head and neck cancers are really kind of an umbrella term. In fact, HPV-related oropharynx or tonsil cancer has surpassed tobacco- or alcohol-related disease. So, it's kind of a growing epidemiology. Obviously, this is the same virus that causes cervical cancer and other cancers as well, but now there's a vaccine for it. But alcohol, tobacco and HPV are probably the most common risk factors for head and neck cancers.
How do you check somebody for a head and neck cancer?
Mathews: In terms of checking for these sort of cancers, number one, we can just do a clinical exam. So, let's say someone has a spot in their mouth that isn't getting better and if anything, the lesions are getting worse. It's becoming more painful. It starts to bleed. Those would be things that someone would want to get checked out.
Can radiation help in all cases, and if not, when is it used?
Yang: Radiation can be helped in quite a few cases for head and neck cancers. Radiation can be used by itself or with chemotherapy to cure head and neck cancers. It can be in conjunction with surgery, typically following a surgery, for other cancers that may have a surgical approach. I would say there's probably a role for radiation in basically every single head neck cancer you can think of.
When is surgery an option for somebody with head and neck cancer?
Mathews: I would say most oral cancers, for example, cancers involving the tongue, the drainage of buccal mucosa. For a lot of these, surgery is the first line of treatment. I would say more cancers in the tonsil region, the base of tongue or in the throat usually get treatments such as radiation and/or chemo.
What is the chemotherapy regimen for treating head and neck cancers?
Kirtane: There are a variety of uses for chemotherapy and a better term is systemic treatments because there are different types of IV or pill treatments that we can give to patients. Most prominently, chemotherapy is used for patients in conjunction with radiation to cure them.
