Raising awareness of head and neck cancer

This week is Head and Neck Cancer Awareness Week. In this blog, information development nurse Teri explains more about this type of cancer. This includes types and the signs and symptoms.

There are over 30 different places that cancer can develop in the head and neck area. The most common are the:

• mouth
• throat
• voice box (larynx).

Cancer can also develop in the:

• sinuses
• salivary glands
• middle ear
• gullet (oesophagus)
• eye.

There were about 62,500 people living with head and neck cancer in the UK in 2010. However, 91 to 93% of cases are preventable. Raising awareness of the risk factors associated with head and neck cancer can help people know how to reduce the risk.

It is also important to know what symptoms to look out for so you can get them checked by your GP as soon as possible. Often, people are not aware of the symptoms of head and neck cancer and may not go to their GP as early as they need to. The earlier it is diagnosed, the more successful treatment is likely to be.

What are the possible causes and risk factors of head of neck cancer?
We don’t know exactly what causes head and neck cancer. But there are risk factors that can increase your chance of developing it. If you have one or more risk factor, it doesn’t mean you will definitely get head and neck cancer. And if you don’t have any risk factors, it doesn’t mean you definitely won’t get it.

Risk factors include:

• Smoking tobacco – the more you smoke, the higher the risk.
• Chewing tobacco or betel quid (paan).
• Drinking alcohol – drinking and smoking together greatly increases risk.
• Gender – head and neck cancers are more common in men than women.
• Age – head and neck cancers are more common in older people.
• Human papilloma virus (HPV) infection.
• Long-term of exposure to the sunlight or sunbeds.
• Pre-cancerous conditions of the mouth – such as leukoplakia and erythroplakia.
• Low immunity – from having a poor diet, taking medications to suppress your immune system or having HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) or AIDS.
• Diet – a diet that includes some types of preserved or salted food poor diet.
• Occupational exposure – prolonged exposure to some types of dust and certain chemicals at work.

Having a close relative with head and neck cancer may also slightly increase your risk.

Having poor mouth hygiene or dental disease may slightly increase the risk of mouth cancer.

What are the symptoms?
The symptoms depend on where in the head or neck the cancer is. Although these symptoms can be caused by conditions other than cancer, it’s important to have them checked by your GP or dentist, particularly if they continue.

Symptoms may include one or more of the following:

Pain

• Discomfort or pain in the mouth that doesn’t go away.
• A sore throat or earache that doesn’t get better.
• Pain in the cheek.
• Pain behind the nose or in the upper teeth.
• A headache that doesn’t get better.
• Pain in part of your face.

Swelling

• A swelling in front of or behind the ear, or under the jawbone.
• Swelling in the upper neck caused by an enlarged lymph node.
• Swelling in the cheek.
• Swelling around the eyes.

Breathing problems

• A blocked nose that does not clear.
• Noisy breathing.

Bleeding

• Bleeding in the mouth.
• Nosebleeds.

Changes to eating and speaking

• Difficulty or pain with chewing, swallowing or speaking.
• Loose teeth for no obvious reason or badly fitting dentures.
• Changes in your speech.
• Numbness of the cheek, upper lip, upper teeth or side of the nose.
• Drooping on one side of the face (facial palsy).

Other symptoms

• A lump and/or ulcer in the mouth that doesn’t heal.
• A white or red patch in the mouth that doesn’t go away.
• Changes in hearing or ringing in the ears (tinnitus).
• A lot of weight loss over a short time.
• Bad breath (halitosis).

Lumps in the neck
If a cancer in the mouth or throat spreads from where it started, the first place it will usually spread to are the lymph nodes in the neck. This can show up as a painless lump in the neck. Lymph nodes are small, bean-shaped glands that are part of the lymphatic system.

Enlarged lymph nodes are much more likely to be due to an infection than cancer. But if you have a lump on your neck that hasn’t gone away within 3 to 6 weeks, it should be looked at by a specialist doctor.

More information

If you would like more information, go to the head and neck cancer section of our website.

We also have booklets about head and neck cancer, managing the late effects of head and neck cancer treatment and cancer of the larynx.

To see what else Macmillan's cancer information team has been blogging about, please visit our blog home page! You can subscribe to receive our blogs by email or RSS too.

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