What are the Risk Factors and Symptoms of Head and Neck Cancers? | Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

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07/06/23

Robert Haddad, MD, explains the major risk factors for head and neck cancers (such as cancers of the larynx, tongue, and tonsils) and describes some of the warning signs for these types of cancer. More on Dana-Farber's treatment for head and neck cancer: http://www.dana-farber.org/Adu....lt-Care/Treatment-an

Transcription:

What is head and neck cancer?

In general, when we’re talking about the neck cancer, we are talking about cancers of the oral cavity, oral pharynx, hypopharynx, larynx, and nasal pharynx. We are not talking about brain tumors—those really fall under a separate category of cancers.

What are the major risk factors?

Smoking is the major reason why patients get head and neck cancer. Smoking is one of the major risk factors. The second risk factor is alcohol abuse. We knew all along that patients that smoke and drink have the highest risk of developing head and neck cancer. Over the past decade, we’ve also become aware of another reason why patients develop head and neck cancer, and that’s infectious. We now know that infection with a particular type of virus called human papillomavirus, or HPV—specifically HPV type 16 is another reason why patients get cancers of the oral pharynx, the base of the tongue and tonsil.

What are the warning signs?

A mass or a lump in the neck is always one of the common signs of head and neck cancer. So really, a change in voice, change in eating, swallowing, chewing, pain on eating, pain on swallowing, sore throat—those would be signs and symptoms of head and neck cancer. There’s also a few of the entities that we call ‘pre-malignant.’ These are lesions that if you see these in somebody’s mouth, you have to be concerned that they could develop later on into cancer. Those are what are known as ‘white spots,’ or leukoplakia. Those are often identified during a dental exam.

Who is at risk?

The ratio of males to females is typically 3 to 1, so it’s obviously much more common in males compared to females. The age for this cancer when the cancer is due to smoking and alcohol use, the typical age for these patients is 60 to 70 years old. When the reason to get the cancer is HPV, these patients are much younger, typically in their late 30s or early 40s.