Posts Tagged ‘Neck cancer’
Treatment Options of Head and Neck Cancer
The three main types of treatment for managing head and neck cancer are radiation, surgery and chemotherapy. The primary treatments are surgery or radiation, or a combination of both, chemotherapy is often used as an adjunct or adjuvant. The optimal combination of the three treatment modalities for a patient with head and neck cancer depends on the site and stage (stage) of disease.
In general, patients with head and neck cancer in early stages (especially cancers limited to the site of origin) are treated with a single modality, either radiation therapy or surgery. Patients with more widespread cancer is often treated with concurrent chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Sometimes, depending on the clinical scenario, patients are treated with surgery followed by postoperative radiotherapy and chemotherapy.
If the plan of treatment is radiation therapy alone for primary cancer, is also given radiotherapy to the neck. Furthermore, it may be necessary to remove the lymph nodes of the neck if the condition in the neck nodes is relatively large or if the cancer in the neck nodes has not been fully removed upon completion of the course of radiotherapy. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Cancer Treatments | 
Tags: Chemotherapy, Head cancer, Neck cancer, Radiation, Surgery | 
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Overview of head and neck cancer
The term head and neck cancer actually encompasses many different types of cancer. The behavior of a particular cancer of head and neck arises depends on where (the primary site). For example, cancers that begin in the vocal cords have a behavior very different from those faced in the back of the tongue, just an inch or less of the vocal cords. The most common type of cancer of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, which appears in the cells lining the inside of the nose, mouth and throat. Other types of head and neck cancer are less common salivary gland tumors, lymphomas and sarcomas.
The cancer spread in three main ways: The first is by direct extension from the primary site to adjacent areas. The second is spread through the lymphatic vessels to lymph nodes. The third is spread through blood vessels to distant sites in the body. In the head and neck cancer spread to lymph nodes in the neck is relatively common. Read the rest of this entry »